Thanksgiving

Golfing- Anthony, Marques, and Dad

Arianna, my niece. She loves the shower and joined many whether invited or not, at least she's clean right!!

Tired Boys. "Just need to cuddle with Daddy a bit." -Rio



(Sorry it is sideways, still figuring this out) My nephew, Brendon. In his new christmas snow outfit preparing with his family  who moves to Minnasota in a few weeks!! Love the new cars slippers!

Well, Can anyone Believe the Holidays are here.. Wow. Two weeks ago was pretty normal for us. We helped out at the Service project and fed the missionaries, and Marques finished up his simulation class. Which he really enjoyed. He got registered for his next term, luckily getting all the ones he wanted. Last week was a bit more full. Monday was his last day of school. That night was spent cleaning the house, and packing for our trip. Tuesday was my lst day of work. Upon my return, we packed the car, Dusty and Rio too, and off we went for my Sister's home in Oklahoma City. Getting there late we headed to bed pretty quick. The animals relieved to be out of the car. Wednesday was full of crafts with my nephew and niece, and time with the family. The boys got to go golfing! Thursday was so fun, a great dinner, and a little Christmas after, considering none of us will be together for Christmas. Friday we celebrated my sister's birthday, and she did my nails!! Then we packed the truck and got in. My mom, I, and Rio in the back, with Marques driving, and Dad and Dusty in Shotgun. We made great time, so the animals weren't to bad. I think Rio lost a few pounds in slobber, but he is fine now, lol. That night we turned my parents into College kids again taking them to Midnight Yell at the Staduim for our football team. The next day was spent touring the local fun sites to see and ended in Marques and Dad at the A&M Game. With mom and I grocery shopping, aren't parents filling your pantry great?? Sunday was wonderfully spent. I taught Relief Society, and we made brownies for the missionaries delivery they had, then off to the turtles. Of course the turtles were hiding so we only saw two!! Maybe next trip out they won't be so shy. Then we had the missionaries join us for dad's enchiladas and games!! So Fun. That leads us to this sad morning of Marques returning to school and I dropped of my parents at the airport. Yes, I cried. It was so wonderful to have family around and liven this place up a bit!! Well, that's all for now and I hope you all had a great start to this wonderful season!!

Starting November

This week was pretty full. It started really slow, but ended very quick. Monday we had a couple over from our ward for dinner and FHE. I must say I was impressed with myself. I made Manocotti  with battered Zucchini, and it was really good!! Then we did our Mills family tradition, The Thanksgiving Thankful Turkey. Tuesday, we got brealkfast together and voted. That night we fed the missionaries, watched to polls, and played Monopoly with them.Wednesday and Thursday were pretty regular. Friday I went and took my fake nails off and had Shellac put on. It is so weird considering I have had acrylics since junior high. I think I will go back to them, it is to weird for me. Then off to work. It was a good Friday. That night we made HoBo Dinners in the oven and they turned out great. Which takes us to Sauturday. We rose early to go help with the ward service project to find out that it had been cancelled. Oh Well.. Marques decided to go play flag football with the ward and then head to the gym. After my morning nap, I started cleaning the house. I went kind of crazy. I had marques take off the doors to the laundry closet  and I scrubbed them down!! They needed it so bad. The previous renters had never cleaned them and it looked like splashed several brown questionable liquids on them. I also did the walls which had this same splash on them. After that I cleaned the rest of the house. Our night consisted of making dinner, shopping at the mall, and going to a carnival. It was a fun filled day.. Oh yes and I must not forget our exciting neighbors, while I was outside were arguing about the boyfriend abusing the girlfriend. It was not so happy, so I finished in the house. Sunday was relaxing, nothing really different. Talked to family in Facetime, and watched a movie with eachother, while I painted crafts. That sums our week. Marques is doing well in school, by the way. He is really enjoying the simulation class he is in and gets to play a lot being a boy while at it!! Have a good week.- Love you all.

Halloween Fun

Wow another week down. October flew by for us around here. This week was kind of lame.. Monday and Tuesday we didn't have much of a different week. I forgot, however, to mention that last week Marques slept on the floor...No we weren't in a fight, lol. I went to bed earlier than he did and I had some cuddle buddies join me. When he finished his paper, he came in to me sound asleep on my side, Rio snuggled on his side, and Dusty taking a cuddle on his pillow. He didn't have the heart to move any of us, so I woke up at 3 and realized he wasn't with me, sat up, and he saw me to say, "babe i'm down here, go back to sleep." I quickly noticed the little room left and feel back to sleep. But What a Great Husband!! The nice sleeping spot must have given Dusty extra energy because the next day or so he took a full on leap from the bed flying squrriel style and landed on Rio's head, He was sitting in the sun on the floor. If once wasn't enough, he did it twice. It was super funny to see Rio react and Dusty totally disregard any of it. Anywho, back to this week, Halloween was alright. We got only 3 sets of trick-or-treaters, but we had the missionaries here for the afternoon and evening because they weren't allowed to go tracking all day. We enjoyed their company laughing, eating, and playing games all night. Thursday I went to "enrichment for relief society." It was a pretty fun craft night. After I went to support the honey playing in the soccer play-offs. The other team didn't show up so they automatically advance. His team played around for an hour or so. Friday I had a Talent Show at work with the Kids. Marques came and watched. It went really well, it was fun to see the kids perform. Saturday was spent watching football, Go A&M and UTES!!! We then went grocery shopping and came home to watch the LSU and Bama game. I was screaming, Marques got a little weirded out, I was so excited for Bama!! Sunday we went to church and of course had a sunday nap together! Usually I sleep and Marques plays on the I-pad, but he actually slept this time..excited to cuddle!! I played the piano a bit once I woke, and made dinner. We are about to watch a movie, but I thought I would check in.. Have a great week all. Love you!!

Our Latest

Things are slowing down around here. Marques is doing well in school and has gotten some results back from papers and tests: Doing nothing less than an A- and a B. He played in the play-offs his last flag football game for this season, and plays in the soccer one this week. It is really fun to watch him! Work is getting better for me. Hopefully, we are getting some more training on how to help these children. Last week I got some pretty good scratches to the face and neck from a child. They are healing well though. A few days after that I was hit in the head with shoes and decked in the cheek. The hit to the face was more of a skim as a bent backwards to avoid it, and he just caught me a little. So work is never dull, lol.
We have fed the missionaries a few times too. We are enjoying them, and come to find out they are enjoying our home as well. They asked if they could come for Halloween and a few times in November. Mom taking after you I guess, growing up always feeding them! We also attended a baptism for a new guy in our ward Saturday afternoon followed by the Stake Trunk-or-Treat. Marques did his usual under a mask thing scaring little kids.. It was really fun.
 Rio and Dusty are hanging in there, literally for Dusty. We hung curtains in our room and he has made those his personal climbing mat. He also managed to climb to the top of the laundry closet knocking off the light bulb and shattering it. Rio is just a knuckle boy. The sneaks on the bed, and has learned to words, "Go sleep on the couch." He has also become pretty good at following them, oh the poor pup. Yesterday we, of course, went and fed the turtles. On the way home we took a drive that ended up an hour and 15 minutes longer than expected. We went to see the ranch Marques stayed on here for his interview, and it is way out there past town on a one way road over the tracks. Once we saw the ranch we turned around, came to the tracks where the train was crossing, thinking it'll be a few minutes. Well we looked at each other and both said, "it's getting slower huh?" Indeed it was, and than stopped conpletely leaving us stranded in the dark with Rio in the back whining. It moved  like I said an hour and fifteen minutes later... Our week beyond that has been normal. We'll keep in Touch. Love you guys..

Catching Up

I am so sorry I forgot to post last week. The last couple of weeks have been not to bad. Marques has had a few papers and books to keep up on, but nothing overwhelming. I had a few things to do for work, and a few crazy days, but we are doing really well and moving right along. It was wonderful to listen to conference last weekend and hear all the new changes and things we can do to better ourselves. We had a couple from the ward over all day Sunday, it was pretty fun to have them here and be able to share things with them.
This past week Marques won his flag football game!! He had a few good passes, but it was a blast to watch and cheer for him. We went to feed the turtles today, and wow, there were probably twenty of them. It was a feeding freenzy!! Marques took me shopping yesterday and I didn't even know it, we went out for some regular errands and I got two pairs of shoes and some things I'd really wanted to the house. Oh and I must not forget my really late birthday present arrived yesterday. I pooled the money I was given and contacted the author of the books, Rip Squeak, I love, and her and her husband, the illustrator, personally signed my painting!! I love it and it already made it to the wall. I also cut Marques' hair for the first time yesterday. It turned out really well, I am proud, lol. We got the opportunity to take the missionaries out this week, which is always a fun treat to have them around. And last but not least, I made two incredible dinners this week. Marques will even tell you. I made beef taco's like cafe rio with the shells and sauce and all and steak, potatoes, and zucchini. I made dinner every night, but those two were new and very delicious. I was so excited and impressed with myself. Anyways, that seems to sum our week, and I will keep in touch better. Love you all.

Normality

Another week down. We are doing well. School is trucking along for Marques, and work is good for me. We had stake conference last week, and had fast sunday today in preparation for this coming weekends General Conference. Nothing new happened this week, except we bought a T.V. and XBOX/Kinect. There is mixed feelings in our home about them. I am one who could live without all of it forever.But to admit, I missed watching a video here and there, but didn't even notice we didn't have t.v. until I wanted to watch a game. Sports I did miss. Marques on the other hand has always enjoyed and used both the t.v. and video games. So least to say we are trying to find a happy medium of what to play and how much to play. It'll all work out, but now at least we can watch conference next week!! Just about the only other exciting thing that happened is we arrived home from church and a neighboring land lord came over to ask for our landlord's info. Long story short, we have had a big storm here the past few days and last night our neighbor's tree up-rooted and luckily fell away from the house. Taking out some of the other neighbor's tree and a few power lines. That land lord was met by the animal control with our neighbor's puppy who had escaped from fear of the storm and tree falling in his yard. Bear, is his name, got to come to visit our house while they got the tree off the lines, and later this week they are sending someone to chop the rest down to restore the yard space. The weather has been nice though. It has been in the low 80's and 70's. The humidity hasn't been bad, but the bugs are what gets you. For some reason, I attract misquito's daily no matter the time. And it looks like I'm abused. My skin reacts very different to them here. Sometimes I get welts, sometimes I get these little crater holes in my skin, and this week I got two huge purple bruises, between them all I'm pretty beat up from them..lol. They seem to leave Marques alone. He must not be sweet enough or something. But anywho, just a normal week around here. Oh and I almost forgot we fed the missionaries! It was really fun. Ok, I am off for another week. Enjoy this one, Talk to you soon!

A Mixed Week

Hello all, here we are again. This week really flew by. Our posts, however, may seem to get shorter and more boring. We are getting into life, and things are starting to flow as they normally would each day. For this week nothing really new happened. The end of the week ended more exciting, but the beginning was slow. Marques is doing well. This week he seemed do to better at staying on top of it. As he is reading and things, he is starting to look into how to narrow his studies in different area of careers. My work was about the same as well. Nothing to exciting, but as Thursday came we had a few exciting embarkments. Our new insurance had a bar b-que thing and they had a hypnotist. Which made us late for a very important date because as Marques said, "I haven't seen you laugh that hard in a really long time." Meaning me, I thought that the show was so funny!! Our very important date was his flag football game. Marques joined a team with the school here, the Bush Wackers. As you all know sports are huge here, lol. He did great. I really enjoyed watching him play, tackling other students, and catching for plays. It was a good end to the night, which was needed. As I left work, I got a phone call from a parent that ended in a threat against another student of mine and me. It was quite a thrill. I have had more things at work like that happen here then the whole time in Utah. And supposedly the people are so nice here, right! Saturday was a cleaning day. I hand and knee cleaned the floor with a washcloth, it was much needed. Oh and don't forget this buddy, Rio, got a bithy Bathy. Speaking of Rio, we wake up Saturday, let him out, and the next thing you notice he is gone! Marques looks and he has somehow escaped into the neighbors yard.. we thought it might have been under the fence, but I wasn't sure because the chain link bends our way and I thought that would hurt him to much to try it. So long story short we lift the fence and let them back over, then we watch a few minutes later and Rio like a perching deer hops the fence. What a little escape artist!! We now have to watch him as he paces the fence and will try to hop over if we don't yell out to him not to. Dusty is great, same old nasty kitty. He is still ripping up our carpet where I think the mice are coming in for the walls. But all in all we are good and ready for this week. Oh we must not forget how nice it was to get a huge package from Grandma Cummins. It was full of great goodies and things needed for all of us. That is a hint to the rest of you that we like packages full of goodies to arrive, lol. Anywho, We love you, talk to you soon.