"Punkin" Patch in Irina's words

i wanted to add that this is irina last year at the pumpkin patch

all the kids

story time w/ the scare-crow

mommy & irina

irina smiling this year!

"punkin" shopping!

Jeanine & Liam

Irina

Irina deep in thought

holding hands! :)

This week we finally made it to a "punkin" patch with our HAND (Homebirth Ass. of N. Dallas) group. We were not able to go with our neighborhood playgroup b/c it was raining that day and luckily this past Wednesday had cool but clear skies. Jeanine and I carpooled and headed to Arlington with our kiddos. We all settled into seats of hay and listened to a scare-crow read some funny fall books during story time. The kids walked and crawled around the pumpkins, I took a few good photos. Afterwards our group headed to Chick-fil-a for lunch and chit chat, the place was super busy! Luckily Chick-fil-a has very helpful staff so we were brought high chairs and our meals right to the table. On the way home Jeanine noticed that the kids were reaching for eachother, I pulled the camera out and took some shots. It was so sweet! Irina would hold her hand out and then Liam would reach for her, how adorable is that! Then Liam would hold his hand and wait for her, we thought it was the cutest thing ever!

Brand spankin' new car w/ 0 miles = Bad for us

The summer of 2006 Craig and I moved back to Fort Worth after living in College Station for 2yrs. We had been driving Craig's "baby", a 1977 Formula for a few years and it was time to get a new car. We decided on a new Mazda 3 that was copper red (really looks maroon, go Ags!) and took the responsibility of the car payment and full coverage insurance. Craig taught me how to drive the car since its a manual and things were great after that! Neither one of us had ever owned a brand spankin' new car with zero miles on it before and we felt on top of the world! Until...

Accident #1- It was the end of January 2008 and I was a couple of weeks from my due date when I accidentally rear ended someone. I had just picked up Craig for lunch and I was not paying attention to the road ahead of me, there were construction cones on 820W and along the access roads as well. The truck in front of me slammed on their brakes and so did I, only I was following too closely and ran into his trailer hitch. There was no damage to his truck and said he was fine not doing info exchange. We repaired the car, it got a new front bumper, new head lights and a new hood.

Accident #2- It was literally 2 weeks later when during a "wind storm" a walmart shopping cart took out the side mirror on the drivers side! I was even more pregnant and spent over an hour searching the walmart parking lot looking for the mirror. I never did find it and ordered one from the dealership. It was almost $200 for the mirror and the labor was free b/c Craig wired the mirror back on with no problems.

Accident #3- Irina is about 2 mnths now and yet another accident! do the math...it was about 2 1/2 mths after losing the mirror! ugh! My sister and I went to visit a friend and her new baby girl, I had to drive b/c of the whole car seat thing and we parked across the street from her house. We were ooo-ing and aaww-ing over the new baby when her mom walks in and says "I think I just hit your car".."is it bad"? was my question to her and she responds with a slow nod..."i was trying to back out and not hit the truck next to me when I heard a loud crunch" she says. I look out to see my car with the entire drivers side completely smashed in, the hood, both doors and even the back of my car was wrecked. Did I mention the BRAND NEW $200 MIRROR was on the ground broken in pieces! Her insurance paid for all of it and my car was repaired.

Accident #4- It was February 2009 and after only 2 1/2 yrs we paid off our car! We made a 4 yr note originally and were proud to have budgeted well enough to no longer have a car payment! 4 days after writing our last check to our credit union, our bliss came to an end when a woman backed into our parked car in the Target parking lot. We were in the car getting ready to leave when we felt a hard push. She said she did not see us and we exchanged info. ugh! After talking to her insurance company and her talking to ours, she admitted it was her fault but was only willing to pay for 1/2 of our deductible. Our insurance company (and us) were not willing to accept her offer and we have been going back and forth ever since. The passenger side tail lights were broken and the bottom bumper was smashed as well. The car was not repaired.

Accident #5- October 2009..Read previous blog about the Deer. ugh!!

Present day- we are taking the car to be repaired by accidents #4 & #5 tomo morning at 8am!

As my good friend Chrissy would say: "Really?, this is happening to my new-non-payment car, Really"??
I mean come on! This car is literally still BRAND NEW... on the outside anyway, all the doors will be new, so will the hood, all mirrors, front and back bumpers, tail lights and head lights! ALL BRAND NEW!
Note: only accident #1 is my fault. ugh!

Trip to College Station!

at Freebirds! People take the foil off their burritos and make them into fun shapes/things
mine was a "diamond ring"
Odom Family at Freebirds
with Sandy! She makes the BEST potato bread ever!

at the Post Oak Mall in the ice cream truck
"every mall needs this" -craig odom
um, i have no explanation. this is the shipping dept at my old place of business
broom
brooms standing alone, completely un-assisted. weird.


This past Friday the Odom family packed up for a 1 day trip to College Station! We had a great time,....well, sort of. Craig was invited to be an administrator for the concept design review of a HYBRID SAE car that Texas A&M University creates and competes with every year. He was thrilled and I was excited for him, we decided to just make it a 1 day trip since we had lots of plans this weekend. We drove there and hit some traffic but Irina did a great job the entire 3 1/2hr drive! She slept for a bit then sang the ABC song over and over and over again, so long as it wasn't crying-I was happy! As soon as we arrived I dropped Craig off at the University and told him to have fun. He was there from 11am-6pm reviewing the design of this hybrid car with his fellow Aggie nerds; one could call it "Nerd Heaven". Irina and I drove to see some old friends that I used to work with, we took a tour of my old office and chit chatted with everyone. All agree that Irina is a mini-me, except my old boss; who said she looks like Craig with my eyes. We got together for lunch and then Irina and headed to the local mall for some shopping. All was well and dandy until Irina had an accident in the play area while jumping on some tree-house steps; she busted her lip pretty badly. She calmed down faster than I did and Chick-fil-a was nice enough to give us a baggie of ice and an ice cream cone to make her feel better. Another friend came to hang out with us at the mall and brought us some of her super yummy potato bread, it was great seeing her after 3yrs+ of only face-booking. After all the bleeding, talking and walking, we of course had to get some more A&M gear. My good friend Kevin left work early so we could spend some more time together and Irina just fell in love with him. He is her Godfather and it was great seeing them together, they automatically bonded. We also heard that President Obama was in town with George Bush Sr. and were excited to see them both from afar and then later saw them flying above us in Airforce 1! Pretty Cool, huh? Before we knew it, it was time to pick up Craig and head to Freebirds for dinner, YUMM! It was everything we ever wanted and more in a burrito ;) On the way home Irina fell asleep right away since we skipped her nap and we were all ready to get home. We hadn't been driving very long when on HWY 6, going about 70mph a deer ran into our car! It was out of no where and I was so scared when I heard the loud thump! HWY 6 is out in the middle of country towns and there are no lights, no houses, and no buildings around, just trees. Craig was driving and handled the whole situation perfectly. He did not jerk the car to the side, since there were cars in the next lane nor did he slam on his breaks, he did awesome! I know that if I had been driving things could have been much worse. The deer hit my side (passenger side) and took out the side mirror, smashed the front of the car and badly dented both doors. I'm SO glad Irina is in the center of the back seat and rear facing so she did not see anything and the thump wasn't right next to her either. I keep seeing the deers face on my window and its so sad, she ran off but we're not sure how badly she was injured :(
So that is why the trip was fun...but only sort of.

FREEBIRDS IS COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the ORIGINAL Freebirds in College Station, Texas. It is super tiny and always crowded but has the best burritos ever. Aggieland is a very small town and now has 4 Freebirds locations, we have been to all locations countless times.




FREEBIRDS IS TO AGGIES as THE COWBOYS ARE TO DALLAS
FREEBIRDS IS TO ME AND CRAIG as BLUEBONNETS ARE TO TEXAS


Freebirds is the yummiest place to eat EVER! Atleast I think so and they are now building one in the Alliance Town Center that is a few miles from us! Monster sizes fed Craig throught out his college career and I'm a half bird kind of girl. WHOOP! You will find me there from now on. We used to drive to the TCU area for the nearest Freebirds and that is over! I am calling around to see the exact opening date because I will be there! Let me know if you want to eat up with us!