Happy Birthday Kathy!

Today is my mother-in-laws 60th birthday! On Saturday night we threw her a surprise party at Big Fish in Grapevine. She didn't suspect a thing (I don't think) and was really happy and excited that so many of her friends and family had come from all over Texas (and Arkansas) just for her party! For those of you who don't know her she is the one in the green shirt in the pic below. I wish I could look like that when I'm 60! We can all hope right?


My brother had a slumber party with the kids at his house so Justin and I got to go and relax and just have a good time with his family! Justin's family is all great, and I'm not just saying that, they really are! I think if I could pick any family to have besides my own it would be his, so I feel really lucky to get to be a part of the Condon and Holcomb families.

Happy Birthday Kathy! I feel so lucky to have a mother-in-law that I LOVE!!! I hope that you have a great birthday today!

Just as a side note: This is my sister in law, Azur, and her husband John and if you look really, really close you can see my new neice or nephew hiding under her hand there, she says the baby is the size of a large green olive this week so we will let that baby stay in there and cook a little bit longer...

Go Jazz!!

Okay so today was Taylor's 3rd basketball game for this season. She hasn't ever played basketball before and I have to say she is really enjoying it! She is on the Jazz and they haven't won a game so far...until today! It was a real death match, they were tied with the Cheetah's 4 to 4 when who else but my beautiful daughter goes down the court with a minute left on the clock in the fourth period and scores the winning goal! I was so proud I cried! Actually I just watered up and then made myself stop before I totally ruined the moment by embarrassing her. But she was so proud and it gave her immediate confidence! It is amazing what one two pointer can do for a little 8 year old girl! Good job Taylor and the Jazz!!!

I'm fine...I think...

I am not just plain old Christen anymore! Now I am a full time college student. I eased my way in with a speech class last semester and now I am taking 12 hours, all online! It sounds great in theory and I was really excited in that way that you get when you are doing something that you feel proud of and you just can't wait to accomplish it! I talked to my advisor, got my whole schedule worked out, went down to three shifts a week at my job and I was ready to go! I have this huge desire all of a sudden to get my degree, I want to make my parents and my brother proud! I want my husband and my kids to be able to live a better life because I contributed! Not that I don't bring home the big money from Chili's, but the bar scene gets pretty old after 10 years! I think to myself that now is the time...I have two kids in school all day and Nicholas is so low maintenance it isn't even funny. I do have a lot of extra time now that I didn't have before.



So class was to start on the 20th of this month. Our computer broke on the 19th, it was our only computer and that left me with no option on this first week of school than to go to the library. Now, the library is all fun and games when you're going with your kids for an outing and the NRH library is new and it is really nice! It has a great little play area for the kids and normally we have a great time there. However, when Mommy is taking three kids after school with a one hour time limit per card holder to be on the computer every day the library seems more like a sinking ship than a Wonderland of books, especially when you are a big person in a little chair in the kids area! I am not computer savvy and I couldn't figure out what the hell I was doing on the campus website. My children didn't help any, they were playing, but, at the library playing gets really loud, really quick! Before I knew it the librarian was over there Shushing my children and asking them where their mother was. I hauled myself out of that little bitty chair and went over right as my dear husband came to my rescue and whisked the kids off to basketball practice so that I could focus (and move upstairs to the adult area).



The next night I went to my Dad's house and he gave me a CPU he had that was extra and we tried our best but we couldn't get it to work. Justin spent three hours on the phone with the tech guys but had very little success! So today much to my surprise my Mom called and said she was going to buy me a lap top! I was so excited I could hardly stand it! I think she just got tired of hearing me complain day after day after day. I went and picked it up at Best Buy today, caught up on all my school work from the week and I am on my way to sanity! Although I can't say if that will happen or not...


Oh and the CPU works now! Two computers! Yeah!

Thank God for my friends!!!

Okay so last night four of my friends from high school and middle school came up to my work while I was bar tending...Michelle, Brittany (crutches and all), Amber and Sara. We met up because our friend Cheryl is having a baby shower Saturday and only three of us are going to be able to go so we all went in together on a gift and we wanted to collect money, sign the card, see what our creative friend (that would be Sara) had done with the package and of course have some drinks! Michelle's boyfriend Trevor also came out for the girls night because he's a trooper....




It was a dramatic night at the bar, mostly because I had no idea how much alcohol I had given anybody. I was way too busy trying to hear all of the stories the girls were telling, so I just served drinks and ran back over to them to hear all the latest gossip! I missed the girls Christmas party because I was sick so I had a good two months, if not more, worth of stuff to get caught up on! So, Brit left first, I don't even know what time that was. Then Michelle and Trevor left, after seeing one of the guys wet his pants at the bar because he was so drunk...bless his heart...if only my friends didn't have so many great things to say I would have cut him of about 20 beers earlier. But Sara and Amber being the great friends that they are stuck around til after we closed to hang out! We took some pictures, they had drinks, and I cleaned up. Man, I got the raw end of that deal...

I'm really way too tired to be blogging right now but I wanted to document the night where my friends saved me from going insane! Work is so much better when you have your friends there to make people wetting themselves and yelling at you for having to pay for drinks that they drank (gasp!) seem funny! Thanks to all four of you girls, and the brave boy, for coming up to see me last night! I had fun catching up with you and can't wait until Cheryl's shower on Saturday!

New Year...New Blog!!

Okay, well I'm going to follow all my friends leads and start a blog! After finding out that you could make a book out of it I was sold!

I have to say 2009 is looking pretty good, except for the devastating loss for the Chargers on Sunday! Now, people assume that I am a Chargers fan because we are from San Diego, however, a Chargers fan is not something I chose to be but rather something that was forced upon me by my parents and my brother. Matt is quite possibly one of the most die hard Chargers fans there is or ever will be...think Cheryl and Peyton Manning or Justin and chocolate shakes! We have also managed to convert Justin into as much of a Chargers fan as we can. It's difficult when every time they get to the playoffs they lose. Sorry Matt, there's always next year!

After watching that sad, sad game we came home from No Frills Grill with my husbands two college roommates John and Jordan and had a little post game party! We invited our friends Brian and Kristin over also and we just played Cranium and hung out. We rarely get together at our house like this because the kids are there and they are usually sleeping but they were so excited to see company walk through the door they could hardly stand it! They think that Big John and Jordan are the coolest friends any Dad could ever have and the fact that Big John is actually bigger than Daddy just blows their mind! It took about 4 seconds after he walked in the door and John had found the cookies on a stick that our 4 year old, Nicholas, had baked that morning and was so excited (see above picture). What could be better for a single 30 year old man than some cold beer and cookie on a stick? Who knew? I've posted an after shot also, it was taken about 30 seconds after the first picture and yes, I do believe he ate part of the stick also...

In other Holcomb news for the new year, I must announce that we are going to be an Aunt and Uncle again! Justin's sister and her husband are expecting their first baby around the end of August. We are so excited! Justin for some reason thinks that he knows the sex of every pregnant woman's unborn child (because he's guessed correctly twice in his life) and has announced that he is sure they are going to have a girl, so we will see, I mean he does have a 50/50 shot! We have an 8 year old nephew, my brothers son, so we would love a little girl and it will be fun to have a baby around again! Especially since we can send this one home with someone else!