The Cox Family

so, you prolly know we are getting a pretty nasty storm named isaac here in florida today and the weather will be pretty bad through most of the week probably... so we decided since the girls can't go outside to play today, we would make dessert together... somethign we have started doing once a week. this week, we wanted ice cream cake, so i found a recipe on kraftfoods and it's really yummy! http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/oreo-ice-cream-sandwich-133036.aspx# this think is really rich, so small servings will be plenty!  it's a great alternative for those who don't care for regular cake and not near as expensive as buying an icecream cake from dairy queen or baskin robbins.  not to mention the fun we had making it!  Mackenzie (9) helped me while Madison (6) played computer.  the hardest part was unwrapping the ice cream sandwiches! it was a very yummy dessert after our homemade chinese pork and veggie stir fry!  i love cooking for my family, and here...

this week has been crazy.... and mommies think the crazyness ends when they go back to school!  ha!  i've had a crazy bus time thing going on... here's just a glimpse into our week: daily, get up and get kids showered 7 am.  have them ready to walk out the door by 830.  kenzie's bus is SUPPOSED to come at 848, i say supposed because, that's not the case.  Madison's is SUPPOSED to be here at 908.  Again, not the case.  So, for the most part, we are good up until bus time.  we walk kenzie almost 1/4 mile down the road for her stop, then while waiting with mackenzie, the little girl next door gets on her bus, so we have to leave kenzie at her stop and take maddie to hers because it's normally within minutes of alexa getting on the bus that maddie gets on... (this was one morning so far, but still, it's stress on the mommma) then my day goes like this:  work, e mails, chores.  and at 4pm, I head out to the bus stop. here's what that on...

as you are aware, my kids started back to school today.  it's one of them days.  it's always hard because the first day of school, so many emotions are going strong... there's the emotions of the kids and then there's the emotions of the mommy's.  today i'm sad.  why sad?  i have all this time to myself, which in motherhood is not normal any mom can tell you that.  but with all of this time, comes time to reflect on the fact that my babies aren't babies anymore.  madison is in 1st grade!  it's the big girl grades for her now... and mackenzie is in 3rd grade.  it's really hard to accept for me because i know that soon i will have high schoolers!  when maddie's a freshman, kenzie will be a senior, and well, let's not go there just yet. so what's my plan for the day, well i want to do a hi five for my business, then i'll attack some of the housework.  laundry.  the spare room.  kenzie's room.  the spare bathroom, our r...

our last weekend before school starts was a crazy one: friday:  a day to help my in laws pack up their house.  they are headed to north carolina for a year and then they will be back!  so we are helping as much as we can. saturday:  i had my c and c meeting with Thirty-One, and I can't go into details about that til after the rest of my team has their meeting.  Once that happens, i'll post all about it.  so excited!  then more packing.  we did get a lot accomplished this weekend! sunday:  church.  we had a great message via Pastor Strayer.  He just knows how to bring it in a way that touches my heart!  i also have some more news that i'll share once it's all finalized, but it has to do with church missions, and my business... and now we are current... the girls are heading to bed soon, and i am gonna have my team call in about 1 hour and 20 minutes... and i am excited to see what EOJ has for us tonight... more updates...

Because I have two children in Elementary School, I thought I would be a doll and share our math secret, but before I do, let me give you a little insight as to how we found this site and why we love it.  Last summer, my nieces were over from Orlando and got on the computer to do their "math" for the day.  When they showed me, I spoke to my sister in law about it.  It's a great site that really helps kids remember their basic facts.  So, I signed up for just Mackenzie.  She was going into 3rd grade, and wasn't great at math, so anything that would help is what I was going for.  So she did it off and on last year.  This summer, we didn't really do it.  I actually had forgotten about it, but since school is starting again, I thought why not.  So, here's the jest of it.   Go to Xtra Math  and you will need to create an account.  You will select the grade your child is in or is going into.  I didn't do it for Madison during ...

You Are "Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother" You may or may not have the most honorable parents, but you try to respect and honor them whenever possible. In general, you think that people should focus on their families more. Charity begins at home. You also believe that younger generations should do a better job taking care of their elders. It saddens you to see how older people are treated in most cultures. You think it's truly a disgrace. Which of the Ten Commandments Are You? Blogthings: A Fine Line Between Insight and Stupidity This one was a little fun thing for today.  There's not much going on, so I thought I would post a blogthing. It was cute and fun.  The girls are chilling today and wishing the weekend would go faster, and school would start.  Do you seriously know of kids who wish there wasn't a summer break?  That's my kids for ya!!!  Well, hope to have something more interesting for you tomorrow :)

So, here's how the morning went: Madison's school:  was a bit of chaos.  Nothing was organzied for getting the busses, or any other information.  They didn't even have a nutrition area set up.  It was utter chaos.  I've never seen a school set up that way.  Perhaps I can talk with the administration to help come up with a better solution for next year.  Her teacher however is AMAZING!  She's cute, fashionable, knowledgable, and we love her!  Mrs. Lopez is going to be fun to work with this year!  And, she loves Thirty-One!!!  Her favorite color is PURPLE, and we have tons of purple coming out in September!!!  Madison loves her class and can't wait for school to start! Mackenzie's school was a bit better organized, I just wish there would have been a sign to tell parents where to go.  Once we found out where they were all set up and made it through the maze to it, it was set up, signs on tables, and very nicely run. ...

We all can relate, I am sure, to the rush of back to school.  There's supplies to purchase, clothes to organize, teachers to meet, kids to get back in routines, homes to reorganize from the summer fun, etc.  With all of this going on, we can all get a bit frazzled.  Well, the frazzling has begun!  We are less than a week away from school starting here and the girls are as excited as can be!  Mackenzie and Madison have had their backpacks packed full of school supplies for a couple of weeks, and so since today is Meet-The-Teacher Day at their schools, I'll be posting another time to fill you in on how that works for us with 2 different schools, 2 different sets of faculty, and 2 different cities for me to drive to for this event.  Before I do that though, I wanted to update you on our week thus far: I've managed to somehow prep all of our food for the rest of the week!  So when it comes to cooking, it's going to be easy peasy!  We had some yummy ...

So, I decided that I would try the 30 Day Shred.  I watched it yesterday and did as much as I possibly could, so I will work up to where I can do the whole workout.  I am so out of shape that it will take me a couple of days to get to where I can do the whole thing without having to stop.  The good news, I did more than I thought I could!  So, tomorrow I will get farther.  The girls are loving doing their workouts!  They even grabbed cans of vegetables to use as handweights!!!  It's amusing to see them decide what they are going to use to workout!  While they are loving this workout, they don't realize how good it is for them I am sure. Ryan left this morning (well 4am)  for Naples for the week.  While we will miss him, we understand that he has to work to provide for us. Mackenzie is totally stoked out for school to start.  She can't wait for meet the teacher day, but then again Madison is really excited as well! I have been ...

today was a typical sunday for us. i got up at about 730 which is my daily norm. got the kids and ryan up at 8 after i had showered and started the process of getting ready for church. we left the house about 830 so we could get there and get the kids all checked into their classes. maddie was moved up to the 1st grade class and kenzie went on into her class. it's great because mackenzie is in a class where they have 2-5th graders so even though she's still in 3rd grade she still gets to be in class with her friends. ryan and i went on into our couples class. and one main thing we came away from class with is this: because the holy spirit lives within both of us, when we are speaking to our spouses, try to remember that we are talking to God as well. this is a very deep thing for us to take in, so it will take some time, but i am sure it will really leave a lasting impact on us. while in couples class, we were asked to put our names/shirt sizes down so that in 2 weeks w...

it's been a long day, but things are coming together... i e mailed back and forth with Kristen today. She has been where I am with fighting with schools, so she had some very useful information for me. I also got a hold of Mrs. Russell from last year who will be working very closely with me and Mr. Russell (Mackenzie's teacher this year), I got my website fixed, I spoke with my sister in law Angie. and Chyanne and really did make her day! I've worked on work e mails most of the day, as well as some end of summer time with the kiddies... ryan worked a 12 hour day today YAY! and now i'm settling down gonna just chill tonight... my plans for next week include but are not limited to: getting ryan to plant city so he can go to work out of town next week, meet the teacher day wednesday, house work, catalog party, and lots of last week of summer loving for my 1st and 3rd graders!!! Not to mention, I'll have to figure out a sitter for my kids for my meeting on Saturd...

So, yesterday, we woke up to a flat tire on our Camry, but not to worry, I already had a back up plan. My friend Deb was already going to pick us up to go to Zephyrhills for the small Spray Park there. So we went, the kids played on the dry playground and then after they were all sweaty and ready to be cooled down, we went into the fenced in spray area. This thing has tons of sprayers, bazooka like water guns, buckets that pour on you etc. While I got tons of great photo's, for some reason my card reader is being a royal pain in the toot! So, I'll have to upload those photo's later. Then on the way home, we dropped Kenzie and Maddie off for a night with Yaya. After that, Ryan picked up the Explorer from her so that he could get the tire fixed on our camry, in the mean time, Deb brought me home, and she stayed the night along with our friend Kevin who brought wings for dinner! It was a great night! and now for today, since I didn't blog yesterday, I wanted to upda...

the girls are excited! woo hoooo! i love that my girls love school! they both get up and don't fight on school mornings which is great!!! so here's the breakdown this year: i have maddie the first grader (doesn't seem possible!) and she's so excited can't wait for meet the teacher day next week! her supplies are almost finished... then it's just put some clothes on lay away for her and we will be good there... then we have kenzie... as you know last year she was in 3rd grade and here in florida if 3rd graders don't pass the standardized test, they fail... well, kenzie was given the opportunity to take a second standardized test and didn't do well enough to go on to 4th grade (after i requested, more than once i might add, that she take this test one on one however they refused to allow it after telling me that the assistant principle would sit in with her) anyhoo, it's going to be a great year for her! although she has had all of this last ye...

since i have started working from home, i just wanted to take the time to share this with you. i was reading in parents magazine and came across a great article, and i am only going to hit the very tops of the article here, but here are some great tips for you work at home mom's who are struggling to balance work and family time since you are working out of your home.... first, i know i will be taking advantage of the girls going back to school, so i, for one, will have several hours a day that will be free for work related tasks only. this will do wonders for my business i am sure. now for the ones from the article: you MUST create a schedule! it's very important so that you can balance that work and family time better. you will thank yourself for doing this after you have gotten accustomed to doing it! for the mom's of toddlers, take advantage of nap time! when your little one is snoozing, use this as your POWER HOUR to get as much working as you can done for your bu...

here in our house, we are excited for a number of reasons!!! first because JESUS IS ALIVE!!! then the other list: -school is creeping closer! woo hooooooo! -we find out next week about kenzie's sat score -maddie is a 1st grader -we are going cabin camping this weekend! -we have the workshop in september and we are so excited about it -today is the 1st of august, which means big things for me! now to expand on a few of the excitements... cabin camping- we haven't been for like 2 years, but we have tent camped quite a bit. we love the cabins and so this will be a fun trip! it's also our first trip of the year because it's been way too hot for camping! what does today mean? well, a new customer special! for every $31 spent, my customers can get any spirit collection item for 50% off!!! That's an amazing savings!!! So, for every $31 spent, they can get their chioce of color in any of these for the prices listed: large utility tote for 17.50 organizing utility t...