Busy Week

Last Monday myself and Clint went to Houston, Texas. One of our suppliers sent us, they also sent Chuck who is our rep from their company to go with us. He was a great host and made sure we were taken care of during the trip. Once we arrived at the airport we had a driver waiting to take us to our hotel. They put us up in a really nice hotel, we were super impressed. After we checked in Chuck to us out to dinner. We went to this fabulous restaurant called Foco de Chao. It is a Brazilian steak house. The food was so good, we had some of the best steaks. The service was also wonderful. If I had to get up from the table someone was there to pull the chair out for me and when I returned someone was there to pull it back out for me. The food and service was amazing. After dinner we went back to our hotel and Chuck spoke to the concierge and was asking him what places he recommended going to. We went to a place called Sam's Boat. They had music playing and TV screens showing sports(which Clint loved). We ordered soda's and talked and then we ordered dessert. We then went back to our hotel and went to bed. We got to sleep in the next morning which was nice. We met Chuck and the rest of our group in the hotel ball room for lunch. Lunch was great and once again we had great service. We then loaded up in charter buses and went to Goodman. We toured the warehouse and the plants were they make the air conditioning units. It was very interesting and I have to say I learned a lot. When we were done we went back to our hotel, they were having a social hour in the ball room. Since Chuck doesn't drink and neither do we and we were kind of tired so we went up to our rooms to rest for a little bit. We then went to dinner. We went to this Italian restaurant called Mingalone. They reserved the upstairs dining room for our group. It was a very nice restaurant. We had appetizers, salad, bread, four entree's and dessert. We were so stuffed. The food was wonderful and we had a good time. We then went back to our hotel to crash. We got up the next morning and had breakfast at the hotel restaurant which was great. We then loaded up the buses and went to Goodman corporate offices. They had more drinks and snacks for us when we arrived, I think I gained a couple of pound while we were there. We had some presentations and then they had lunch brought in. Lunch was great as usual and then we went back to the hotel. We sat in the Lobby and talked until our driver arrived. We then went to the airport and arrived back home at about 8:30pm. It was a short trip, but it was nice to get away even though business was involved. We had a good time. My brother Oscar kept our kids while we were away, I am sure his house was busy. Thursday I did a few things at home and then I had to catch up on some work in the office so I worked most of the afternoon.

Well Thursday night Oscar dropped off his boys and it was my turn to take care of the kids. Oscar and his wife Luisa took off for a few days to go and celebrate their anniversary and Oscars birthday. The kids had fun playing together, it was definitely busy and crazy at times, no sleeping in for me. Friday Clint's sister Roma and her family came down for the day so I had a full house. Roma has five kids plus her husband. The kids had fun playing together. Saturday I took the kids to the park and then we went grocery shopping. I had to go to Costco, Sprouts and Fry's. I had several people stop and ask me "are all these kids yours??" I guess people thought I was nuts when they saw me with six kids. Everything went well we even stopped at the snack bar at Costco for ice cream and churros. As soon as we got home I fed the kids dinner and then I took the four little ones a bath and but them to bed. I let Taylor and Jordan stay up and do there own thing for a while. Sunday we woke up, and the kids played and I cleaned, then time to get everyone ready for church. The one good thing about boys is that they are so much easier to get ready, their hair takes about 2 seconds to comb. After church we had dinner and then I took Jacob and Josh home around 7pm. Luisa's mom was there waiting for them. Jacob didn't want to leave and neither did Josh. They had fun playing. After I dropped them off I put my younger two girls to bed. About 30 minutes after I put them to bed Alyssa came down stairs, when I asked her what was wrong she started crying and said "I just can't stop thinking about Jacob and Josh." She missed her cousins. It was definitely a busy week but lots of fun.

Miss. Pre-Teen Phoenix Pageant

Jordan had the opportunity to compete in the Miss. Pre-Teen Phoenix Pageant. She was judged in three categories. Her interview with the judges, casual wear and formal wear. This was her very 1st pageant ever and she did a great job and looked very beautiful. The top ten get to go to the nationals in December. Unfortunatley, she did not make it to the top ten and she was very sad about that. I told her Just having the opportunity to participate, and the fact that she had fun, she learned a lot, she got to go shopping and she made new friends was a great experience in itself.


This was the evening before the pageant when she had her interview with the judges. There were four of them.

This is during the casual wear competion at the pageant

This is her back stage just before going on stage to compete in formal wear. It was so cute, when Mikayla first saw Jordan's dress after we bought it and brought it home she said, " Wow, Jordan's going to be Bell" (from the disney movie Beauty and the Beast) .

This was her on stage competing in formal wear and she also had to answer a question from the judges. Her question was "If you could go anywere in the world were would it be and why"

It was a long day, Jordan and myself had to be at the auditorium by 9:45am for rehearsal, we took a lunch break at 1:00 and were back by 2:oopm, we stood in line and waited for the back doors to open at 2:30 to go and get ready, pagenat started at 4pm and we left around 10pm and got home around 10:30pm. This was a really fun experience for Jordan. It was also great that I had to opportunity to spend so much time with Jordan and do something with her. There are many things that you have to do to be part of a pageant. There is the first meeting were you apply to be in the pageant and go before a judge. Then once you are accepted you have a training class to go to, then there is the interview with the judges the night before the pageant and rehearsal and the pageant which take all of one day. And then of course there is shopping and we had to have her dress altertered so there were 3 fitting for that. I enjoyed spending all this time with her, even though it was stressful at times trying to get everygthing done in the two weeks you have. One of my favorite things was helping her backstage. Doing her hair & make-up and helping her dress was fun. I also meet a few really nice mom's. Several girls and moms came up to Jordan and compemented her on how beautiful she looked and I think that made her feel really good. Even though Jordan was sad that she didn't make it to the top ten, she had a lot of fun and had a great experience, who knows maybe she will decide she wants to do this again.