FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

The First Day of School!

This year Dylan started 4th grade, and Desiree took her first steps into Big School - Kindergarden. Dakota Grace wasn't left behind, no, she was off to pre-school too!

Dylan is all decked out in his "cool" clothes and the one-strap backpack he was determined to find. He looks just like Robert here, and about the same age that him and Katie met. Isn't that wild?!
Desiree, not short of a pose, even early in the morning.

Boys here she comes. Daddy, get ready! Ha!
Dakota Grace, pleasant with a smile this morning, big apple cheeks and all decked out in her purple poka dots.

Some photos of Desi's first Day.

At her desk, all settled in.

With her Teacher, Mrs. Jackson, who Katie went to school with.

Sitting next to Avery Granberry. Cousin really.

And lives just down the street. So cool that they get to be in the same class.

Everyones first day went well. No homework yet, but hey it is the first day and all.

Dakota Grace turns 3!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KOTA GRACE!
Dakota turned 3 on August 28th. She has made great leaps of change this year. She has finally started to talk up a storm. Cuttest voice ever too. She loves her big bro and sis. Following and doing everything that they do. Though have no fear, her independant self that has made her her is still alive and kicking. If she doesn't want to, she aint gonna! And as stubborn as she might be, I love her for that. Here are some of the photos we got from her two parties. One on her birthday at Chuckie - Cheese, and the other at mom and dad's.

Singing Happy Birthday on Pappy's lap. I made her a pink Octopus. Desiree and Kota playing one of the games. Loves her big sister. Her Second Birthday party!
Here is her blowing out her candles. Yes she blew out her candels all on her own this year.

All the Girly presents! Dolls, pink things, Princess Tent, and Playdough sets, and lets not forget the Bubbles!

A Good Photo of all Three. Desiree looks 13 here!! My gosh how they grow so fast.

Katie & Dylan. Awe.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Doggy Lake!

Finally I have conviced Jacob to take the dogs to the lake!

We normaly take them a few times a year, but this year the beach that we go to has been taken over by rockwall residental developement. Booo!

So, when it was going to be just Jacob, dad and I, I was able to convience him to let us bring them along. THEY LOVE IT!

Luke loves to try to bite at the waves as we drive thru them, and loves to swim, and for this reason we put the jackets on them. They were moving around too much while the boat was moving. It made me nervous.

Zoe just loves to feel the wind in her fur. Ha! She wants nothing to do with getting in. The only water she enjoys playing in is the rain.

I grabbed a few photos as we were out. They were too cute not to share.

And after all they are my children.

WORK, WORK, WORK!!

I have been so busy at work, and everyone keeps asking what it is that I do. Then I go into the explaination of it, and I get a deer in the head lights look. So to help, I have gone and taken a few photos. This is only the inserter side. I do have an entire printing side, that I will have to post later.

The set up. This is our first of two machines.
We are currently loading by stacks. There are several ways to do this, but this has seemed to work out best for us. The pin feed below is where the cutter has cut the 18" width paper into two pages and cut the pinfeed off.
This is where the two cut pages are then turned over and sent to the accumilator.

This accumilator is a double stack, meaning that it has a set of pages on top and then another set on the bottom. Moves faster this way. The computer is set to a specific amount of pages and that is what is "accumilated" into each set before being pushed to the folder.

The folder is shown above (the long stripes above) then the folded letter is pushed thru the rubber rollers and then shot out to the "track" (seen below)

This photo shows the folded page being pushed out, one after another.

The track is lined with pins every 10" or so for each new letter. The machine will sense when it is time to "dump" the letter into the track. It will hold it if there is not a space available yet.

The pages will now move down the track. They pass over a sensor, so that the machine knows it needs to add a "stuffer".

This shows the entire track. We have a 6 space track.

The envelope or stuff piece is pulled out by the grabers (at top) a sucker will pull down the next piece for the arms to grab then swing out over the letter and drop into the track.

The the letter will have a Carrier envelope pulled, opened up and then lifted by these sucker arms to open the envelope.

Then the letter is shoved "shove station" into the carrier envelope.

Then after getting its letter the envelope will travel down to the turnover, but first being "licked" by a wet brush, and closed.

The turn over then turns the envelope over 180 degrees, so it may travel down for its postage.

The letter then moves thru the meter, which is controled by another computer above the meter (black box) with the correct postage.

After being "stamped" the letter is turned upright and collected at the end, shown here. We will then pick the envelopes up flip thru them to make sure they all are stuffed and metered correctly, and then stacked into trays.

We will have anywhere from 5 to 30 pallets of trayed letters a week.

Those letter are sent out for people to then send back their orders for different books. Here are a stack of books that are going out. Lots of orders. I have around 3 to 8 pallets of these go out twice a week.

Fun stuff! Now you know half of what I manage on the floor. I will soon post the printer side later.

RENT!!!

OMG!! (Oh My God - for those not "hip" on the acronym slang) Mom called me the other day, and asked if I would like to go to see Rent, at Fair Park. Like she had to ask - Uh, Yah! Gordon, her boss, had 5 tickets that he wasn't going to use, and all the doctors turned them down, so mom was the lucky recipient!! Well, her and Kalina. So, Mom, Katie, and I, plus Kalina and her Husband got to go. For those who know me, know that I am a Musical Freak, not one that I don't like! Surprising though, that this was actually my first to see in person, and not on screen. I was so excited, I really could have just screamed the entire time. It was good, and for those that saw the "movie" and not the show, should really go see the show next time it's here. Even Katie, who couldn't even finish the movie, LOVED the show. The singers were fabulous! The band was sooo good, and our seats were probably the best in the house. I owe a huge thank you to Gordon. Thank you for giving us an amazing night. It will not be forgotten!! Here are some photos that I snuck in. (the lady behind us had her camera taken away! FYI: don't bring your camera to the show)

The theater (bottom floor): View from our AMAZING seats! Mom Katie and I after the show.
Thank you again to Gordon, his family,

and Rehab Management for letting us go!

King of the House!

Jacob caught this photo this week, and since he was so nice in sharing it with me, I thought I would share it with you.

I have never seen Luke on the dog house before. Zoe` yes, she is up there looking for the squirls all the time, so this was kinda of a good feeling that he does like the dog house. Now if I could just get them to go in it!

Hope you had a great weekend!

FIRST CATCH OF THE SEASON!

First Catch of the Season Goes to...

Dylan!

What a big one he was!

Pappy told him that if this was a tournament that he could have won big money! Watch out boys...Tournament fisher in the making!

Jacob was able to grab some photos with his camera, and though they all didn't turn out perfect, we can still see the big "grins"

Such a proud moment! A couple of trips later, Pappy trumped Dylan's catch, or we'll say, Jacob and Pappy trumped Dylan's catch with this WHOPPER of a Big Mouth!

With the scale not working and no measuring tape in sight, this gives you an idea on how big she was...

March May-ham!

Okay, so I haven't posted since Feb. Sorry!! We have gone fully live at work with our new client and by the time I get home I am so exhausted I can't move. 12 to 14 hours a day on concrete - not fun for my feet!
I did happen to turn 31 some where amongst it all. Another year as flown by and I feel like I haven't done a darn thing. Starting to think life is going to be gone, before I can find my groove; and some days I think it is already gone. Why is that 31 seems so young on other people, until it is YOU that is 31.
Also... Nana Herndon turned forty years older than I (you do the math - I'm not telling) on the 28th. What a banner year she has had! Totally Beat the crap out of Cancer. I am so proud of her. Faced it like a Champ. I am extremely thankful that they were able to catch it early and fix it all without having to do chemo. Love you Nana!!

Dylan has started Soccer again this year. They have had some changes to their roster this year and have been put in with the 10 year olds - they're all 9! They haven't won a game yet, but next year they will stomp all over those boys - they'll have a ton of defense practice under their belt! LOL.

Desi & Kota are growing like weeds. Kota is finally starting to come out of her shell a little and talk up a storm. Of corse it still depends on her mood, but she is making perfect headway. Desi, my social butterfly, will start school next year and I can already see her being her mother's mini-me. Smart, smart, smart. And a total Cheerleader!

Matthew moved out!! I will get some photos of his new "crib" as soon as I can. (can't believe I haven't done that already) He has taken the big step and moved to an apartment in garland (closer to work) with a close friend Jason. Like all young boys, they are trying to find their balance between work, girls, and a little too much fun!

Hope your March was as busy as ours... Jenn.

Fighting to stay awake!

Okay, So as of the post below. No I have not kept my New Years Resolution, but who does anyway.
I have officially started working full time for Shamrock Companies. Yeah, I got the full time post. I have learned how to run the printers, and the inserters now. And I guess so well, that they have promoted me to QA manager over the entire project! Very exciting, and very exhausting at the same time. Granted I have been working at a sit down job for the past 4 years, and now literally on my feet all day, to only sit down for lunch if I am lucky. And then running my butt off thru out the day making sure everything is going well. By the time I get home, I don't/can't move. My feet hurt so much. I sit on the couch, and usually pass out before we can decide on what to eat. Poor Jacob. I know he thinks I have completely forgotten about him. No, just so tired I don't know what my own name is.

As I am now catching up on all my blogs and friends I see that they have all been sick! So I am sucking up my above complaint, and Thanking GOD! That I, nor the rest of the Morale-Smith-Walker Crew has been struck down with this awful mess you all have had. Prayers to all, that you will be well steadfast, and that we all will not have to endure.

Love to all,

Jenn.

Happy New Year!

Okay, New Years Resolution...

1. Keep up with blog better.

And with all resolutions, I have already screwed it up! Still behind.

In my defense, I have started a new job, which does not include a computer. (First in a long time) Therefore I am not near one until I come home, which in turn I am so exhausted to even think about getting on one. So as always, I am way behind. I do plan on getting better at blogging faster. I promise. Promise to myself to be better at this, this year!

Happy New Year Everyone!