Memory Lane Memoirs

What's your most hated chore?

2012-02-15T10:34:00.003-06:00

This was a question on a radio game show yesterday in honor of Valentine's day. The husbands were supposed to guess the wives' answers.

My most hated chore would be cleaning the kitchen. Other than where we sleep, it is the room we spend the most time in.

It's where we drop our loads of groceries, diaper bags, school papers, coats, purses, etc.

It's where the mail gets stacked up, where things I need to do and projects get dumped.

It's where my husband unloads his pockets so we always have change, phones, pocket knives, etc in a pile on the counter.

It's where we eat, cook, and where the kids play.

It's where the art supplies are stored...for some reason at kid level...so they constantly drag everything out.

The counters are always covered. It is only a day away from being a hoarders episode.

The table is always just a little bit sticky.

There is always a load to be unloaded in the dishwasher and a sink full to be washed.

And then there is the danged high chair....always a filthy mess. Had I known how messy a baby could be I would have bought one that was easier to clean. (the highchair, not the baby, LOL!)

The kitchen table could use a wipe down with acid to peel back the layers of food my kids have applied to every nook and cranny. Just running your hand down a chair leg you can feel little bits of food. Deep cleaning the table has been on my to-do list for weeks.

The floors always need sweeping and mopping.

The stove always needs cleaning.

The appliances always have smears and fingerprints.

I'm always in the kitchen trying to stay on top of the mess. So naturally my kids are in there and they constantly ask me for food or drinks every hour of the day.

Our kitchen is also one of the first rooms you see in the house so I feel the need to keep it clean 24/7.

I've kept that in mind when designing the floor plan for the new house. In the new house, we come in through the mud room so I'm hoping a lot of stuff will get dumped in there. And the kitchen isn't readily viewable from the front door for company either.

Occasionally I'll get the whole kitchen cleaned, stare at it for about 15 seconds, turn off the light, and declare "THE KITCHEN IS CLOSED!

Then we get up the next morning and it starts all over again.

What did you get done this weekend?

2012-02-13T07:00:00.001-06:00

I had every intention of knocking a lot of things off the to-do list this weekend. I needed DH's help because it required a tall ladder. He had other plans. After a rough week at work, he needed to venture into the great outdoors. I suggested he go hiking in our new neighborhood that has a ton of trails near the river. Well...he ended up getting his truck stuck in a mud pit. You know how they say don't ever drive into water because you never know how deep it is? They are right. He was in mud up to the bottom of the door on his truck. He called me in a panic...he thought I was going to be so mad. But you know what? Sometimes things like that happen to teach him a lesson. We have roadside assistance so it didn't cost a thing to pull him out. And we didn't lose anything but some time. And he was in a safe area close to home.

But anyway, after that ordeal, he was in no mood to do any work. And half the day was gone too.

My mom came over and watched the kids Saturday night so we could have a Valentine's date. We saw "The Vow" which I thought was good...but a little slow. After that we went to Pappasita's for dinner. We almost NEVER get a date night so this was a wonderful evening without the kids. I was amazed that our good spirits lasted well into Sunday. I really hope that once we move we can find a good sitter and make this a semi-regular thing.

Sunday we watched our church service via the Internet instead of going because it was soooooooo cold! Since DD2 had been sick earlier in the week we really didn't want to drag her out into the cold. The walk from the car to the church is always really windy on cold days and is a pretty long walk. After that we went to HEB and bought some snacks and rented some movies.

We put the kids down for a nap/quiet time and next thing I know our phone rings and my mom is driving by and wants to know if our house was on fire. I went outside and there was a huge black smoke coming from the woods right behind our house. I called 911 and someone on the other side of the woods had already reported it. Next thing we know there are people driving up and down our street and emergency vehicles everywhere trying to figure out how to get to the fire. It was at an old house in the woods behind us. Apparently it was abandoned. We thought the old man still lived there. We used to hear his hound dogs all the time. Lately we'd been hearing gun shots and figured it was target practice. Occasionally we'd hear something walking behind our fence at night and assumed it was animals. But, I'm not so sure anymore because the fire revealed that criminals were using it to strip stolen copper there. Just add that to one more reason why I can't wait to move.

I was so scared while the fire was raging. Thank God for the recent rains. If this had been during the height of the drought then we very well could have lost our house. There are no fire hydrants back near that old house so they had to bring water in. DH and I were discussing what to pack if we had to quickly evacuate. He was thinking mostly about a change of clothes. I was thinking pictures, videos, computers, and important files. We tried to think positively. I even said well, if our house goes, then that will be less to pack to go to our new house!

Writer's Block

2012-02-10T14:43:00.000-06:00

Is it just me, or does it seem like people aren't blogging much lately? I know I sure haven't. In an attempt to catch up, I've updated and back posted a few things. Hope you enjoy!

http://www.memorylanememoirs.blogspot.com/2011/10/october-recap.html

http://www.memorylanememoirs.blogspot.com/2011/11/many-many-updates-dhs-job-thanksgiving.html

http://www.memorylanememoirs.blogspot.com/2011/12/merry-christmas-and-happy-new-year.html

http://memorylanememoirs.blogspot.com/2012/01/we-went-to-arbor-day-festival-this-year.html

Our Home Color Selections

2012-02-02T17:30:00.002-06:00

First let me show you the model home pictures.

This is the front. Although this house is all stone in the front.

This is the master bath.

This is the living room.

This is the kitchen. We had them move our kitchen all the way to the front and where there is a door to the diningroom, we'll have a window. And the room is longer so we had to add extra cabinets too.

Back in December we had to sign off on our selections that I blogged about earlier. I had some major anxiety about some of the things I picked. I ended up changing a lot of things at the last minute. Here's where we stand now.
The exterior is hardiplank, in Aspen White. But it is really like a creamy white...almost yellow. The trim is a bright white that makes it pop.

This is our roof. Exciting right? LOL.

The front porch column bases are wrapped in stone.

The Front Door is solid wood in a dark walnut stain. We have small windows that surround the front door so we didn't feel like we needed another window in the door. Plus we didn't like their standard offerings or the idea that we'd have to put a curtain over the window or risk being spied on.

This was the tile on the walls in the showers.

And this was the tile on the floors throughout the whole house. By the way, that is the cabinet color in the background for every cabinet except the girls bathroom which will be painted white.

I hated the tile I picked so I choose the tile in front for the floor and the tile in the middle for the walls.(for everything but the girls bathroom)

The girls bathroom is small so I wanted to go lighter. Plus their cabinets are painted white. The first one is the wall and the 2nd one is the floor. (I think)

I changed the bathroom counters from saddlewood to stoney island. I wanted to go lighter. It doesn't seem like much of a difference here but in a big scale, it made a big difference.

I changed the kitchen counters from brown to gold. I wanted to go lighter. I think I was going too dark with everything.

The Heritage door below with the arch is our kitchen cabinet uppers. This is not a raised panel door and I'm a little scared that I'll think it looks cheap. But I was going for a country look so I chose it anyway. It will be stained dark.

The kitchen lowers will not have the arch like the Lexington door below.

All our bathroom cabinets will be raised panel like the yorktown door below.

The family room floors are this.

Our kitchen backsplash is this travertine.

And this is the pattern they'll lay it in.

Our fireplace stone is this and will be stone up to the mantle and the mantle will be a cedar beam.

All the light fixture and water fixtures are tuscan bronze like this fixture that we'll have over the table.

Our appliances are stainless. And because my current dishwasher is almost new and I love it, I'm taking it with me. Crazy right?!?

Our carpet is a light beige and our walls are a light neutral color too.

These are our interior doors.

As far as the status, we finally got approval from our neighborhood to build. To date I've gotten the lot cleared, a culvert put in, the old culvert removed, a construction road installed, and a water meter installed and closed on a construction loan. Now it is up to the builder to build this thing. I am so ready to see this project come to life!

Wildly Inappropriate

2012-02-02T07:15:00.000-06:00

Two mornings ago DD1 told me that sometimes at night in her room God talks to her. Who am I to say he doesn't? So I told her about the time that I heard God's voice inside my head and he said, "What are you worried about?" (I blogged about that several years ago.) She was interested in what I was worried about. She was concerned for me. So to make her feel better, I told her that immediately after I heard that, God put his peace in me.

Except I have a dirty mind, and my mind processed that as God put his piece in me.

And I couldn't stop smiling. I'm glad DD1 was in the backseat of the car and couldn't see me. And I really wished I had an adult around to laugh about it with. I wished someone was there to say, "That's what she said."

It is so inappropriate and probably a sin. But I'd like to think God has a sense of humor. And anyway, I blame the medications the doctor put me on.

So there.

Cleaning The Floor

2012-01-24T07:00:00.000-06:00

I've been ignoring the kitchen floor for a few days. Last night as I was staring at the dishes in the sink, food that needed to be put away, the laundry piling up, and toys everywhere I asked my dear sweet husband could he please help me out and clean the kitchen floor.

Normally I just sweep then I stand on two Lysol wipes and scrub the sticky spots with my feet. We have a cleaning service that comes once a month to deep clean it so I just try to keep up with maintenance.

I may NEVER ask for his help again. He did it, but he complained and found things to gripe about the entire time.

1. "Why don't we have a push mop?" (why do men ALWAYS find a need for more tools?)
2. "In the new house, we are NEVER, and I mean NEVER going to let anyone pile up anything in front of the shop vac in the garage." (why do men always think you need a bigger tool for the job?)
3. "Why is there so much liquid left in the bottom of the Lysol wipes container?"
4. "The last 4 wipes are twisted up and I can't get them out"
5. "Why didn't we seal the grout lines a 2nd time after we moved in?"

I'm sure there were at least 5 more complaints that I've blocked from my memory.

Arbor Day Festival

2012-01-21T14:35:00.009-06:00

We went to the Arbor Day festival this year. The weather was beautiful. We were given a ton of trees that we've planted in buckets and hope to plant on our new property when we move. We got dogwoods, redbuds and many more.

The girls had fun running around and dancing to the live music.

DD got her face painted.

This is something we'll definitely put on our calendar for next year too.

Custom Home Building Costs

2012-01-19T15:17:00.000-06:00

I was told to update my blog. So here’s what’s on my mind.

If you ever decide to build a house on your own land, make sure you have money. Lots of money. And when you think you have enough. Go ahead and save up about $50,000 more.

When you go to a homebuilder with a set of plans and ask them how much a house will cost, you don’t think too much about all the other stuff not included in that cost.

1) Utilities (Gas, Water, Elec.) and the cost of running a line to your home.

2) Neighborhood Architectural Committee Fees

3) Septic Systems

4) Permits

5) Driveways

6) Culverts

7) Construction Roads-temp roads so the trucks can make deliveries

8) Multiple Surveys

9) Lot Clearing

10) Soil Testing

11) Pad (dirt to build on) or extra concrete slab not included in the price of the home but necessary because of how your land slopes.

12) Construction Fencing (a requirement of our neighborhood)

At this point, we aren’t even worrying about a fence, grass, or even window coverings. (Hello Sheets thumbtacked above the windows.)

We were warned to prepare to spend 20 to 30 thousand on these “soft costs.” We are up to $34,000. We also added an additional 13,000 for upgrades to the house. So you can imagine my anxiety when I received an e-mail from the neighborhood architectural committee in charge of approving our build that said we needed to discuss a framing issue. The neighborhood requires 16 inches between all framing and they’ve had an issue in the past with our builder. I currently don’t know whether we’ve been approved or not. If we haven’t, then the builder is probably going to want more money. Please pray.

This is just one of many little issues that have come up in the last 5 months.

I’m trying to remember that worrying about things I can’t control is useless.

Don’t ever tell someone how exciting it is to build a new house. Just give them a hug. They need it.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2011-12-31T14:14:00.002-06:00

I'm actually posting this in February in an attempt to catch up on my blogging. But we'll pretend like I'm not. Ok? Great. Thanks.

DD1 and I made cookies. We saved 3 for Santa and put them in the freezer. This was a great way to keep from rushing cookies at the last minute. We made these reindeer cookies with M&M's and Pretzels.

Nanna came over and did a gingerbread house with DD1

DH had a birthday. We ate Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Cake.

We split Christmas this year into 3 days of celebrating.

On the 23rd we went to church. They had snow for the kids. DD2 wasn't real happy about her first snow experience.

Nanna and Paw Paw joined us at church. We're chilling in the cafe before service.

That night they came back to our house and we ate dinner and opened our gifts to each other.

On the 24th, my nephew from Miami flew in and we picked him up. It was so good to have him with us this year.

We ate my famous Shrimp Etouffee and then we let everyone open their presents.

DD1 gave DD2 this baby and DD2 is rocking it.

MeMaw gave DD1 this diva hat. I think she looks just beautiful.

Dad wanted a picture of DD2 in this rocking chair that has been passed down for over 100 years.

Mom and dad opened their gift cards from us.

DD1 laid out her milk in cookies for Santa. She was very concerned about Santa getting burned by the fire. I promised to put it out before we went to bed.

My nephew had to sleep on the couch because DD1's bed wasn't long enough. LOL!

Santa came!

On Christmas morning after we looked at what Santa brought we all enjoyed some biscuits and gravy.

After that we went to my grandparent's house to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family.

Before my nephew went back to Florida, I bought some fireworks for all the kids.

From left to right. My niece, DD2, My nephew, and DD1.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-13T17:30:00.000-06:00

This will probably be the last post of the year for me unless I have something really big to brag about or I just need to get something out. Starting tomorrow I'll be in a race to finish the rest of the month's work so I can take off Dec 22-Jan 2. 12 days off. Holy freaking smokes! But there is not rest for the weary I'm sure.

So here's what's been going on.

Kids Christmas Party

"I don't care what you say, don't paint my face!"

Pretty snowflakes!

"No way! A turtle balloon animal!"

"I usually wear my heart on my sleeve but today I've got it on a stick."

Snowman cupcake decorating. I think he looks kinda Hispanic...like he's got a chocolate sombrero and the red licorice is his handlebar mustache.

"I am so tired of taking pictures!"

This was at church last weekend. See her reflection? I like to call this one the magic of Christmas.

She's thinking..."I think they are about to drop me off in church daycare again." :(

Adult Christmas Party

Our Christmas party entertainment this year was Big and Rich with Gretchen Wilson and Cowboy Troy. DH got sick with the stomach bug that's been going around our house so we ended up leaving before we could watch any of that. I did go back and watch Gretchen Wilson sing one song but it wasn't the same without my date. Before he got sick we had a blast in the disco room with my pals from work.

This weekend we've got nothing on the calendar so I thought I'd decorate cookies with the kids and then go see Christmas lights. We usually have done this by now already. We are behind with a lot of things this year. We just got our lights finished on the house last night. I also need to help DD1 write a letter to Santa...good thing she has no sense of time so she won't notice how late we are doing this. Gifts are all bought but need to be wrapped too. Oh and you know those toys I blogged about previously? Well UPS messed up and delivered them to another city...then the site said they were shipping them back to Target. I called them and they said expect a call by the end of the day but also call Target. Target was already out of stock so they couldn't reship. I finally decided to just go buy them at the store and sweet talked the manager into honoring the website price. Then, I get back to my desk and find an e-mail that says they were just delivered to my front door? What? I guess I'll see a couple minutes when I get home if that's for real. And if it is, I'll do the walk of shame to return the ones I bought at Target. I'm sure the manager is going to think I'm coo-koo for telling her they weren't being shipped to my house.

Anywho, while I'm out doing this I realize that shopping in December is out of control. I'm in the midst of finding the last parking spot in the entire shopping center and I get a call from a family member trying to control me and tell me what to do. I did the right thing though. I bit my lip, thanked him for his concern and then said bah-bye!

One of the reasons we've been behind is the Plague that is attacking our house. One person or another with one sickness or another has been attacked since Thanksgiving. I'm suffering with Eustachian Tube Dysfunction right now. Which means I can't hear. Like seriously I'm deaf in one ear. The TV is up as loud as it can go and I still can't hear it. I have to turn my head so I can order with my good ear at Sonic. And, I say "what?" a lot. DH has been sick every weekend for 2 or 3 weeks. He gets to hold up in the bedroom while I play single mom. Then he's finally well and he has the never to tell me he is going hunting this weekend. Anyone know where I can get a lump of coal? Not for his stocking but so I can chunk it at him!!!

We are closing on the construction loan at the end of this month. I am so nervous about that. I also think constantly about how much work we need to do on our current house to get it ready to sell. There is nothing big...but I just want it to show perfect so we can get top dollar! I do not look forward to cleaning up every day before I go to work in case someone looks at it that day. I also don't look forward to packing or the physical moving. But through prayer we'll get through everything one day at a time like we always do.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I Caved

2011-12-07T17:28:00.000-06:00

I caved. Actually I don't feel guilty about it all. I think I set my budget too low. I'm usually an early shopper but I'm surprised at the deals I just got online by waiting a bit. They were on sale, I got some free shipping, and $5 off. I'm gonna have 2 very excited kids come Christmas morning. Now if only I can keep them away from commercials til the 25th!

Merry Christmas...I guess I'm being a scrooge

2011-12-03T15:49:00.000-06:00

I would love to buy my daughters everything they wanted. But I can't afford to. And I couldn't stand the overflow of toys from their rooms if I did either. All day long I hear about wuggle pets, exploding pigs, stompeez, magic cookie presses, etc. I have to draw the line somewhere and I've already spent my budget for them.

Other things I'm doing this holiday is skipping professional portraits, Christmas cards, and postage. We just took the picture above at our company kid's party. I e-mailed and facebooked it out and voila! I'm done. Wow, it feels great not to have to address 40 cards.

I also bought a dress for the company party on sale for more than half of what my dresses usually cost. I've given up pedicures & eyebrow waxes and plan to do these myself. I'm also going to do my hair myself for the party. I've bought store dye to cover up my highlights for the winter to save money on salon appointments.

I'm pretty proud of my penny pinching. It makes me sleep a little easier at night knowing that I'm doing as much as a I can to pay down the upcoming expense of a new house.

I just wish the other people in my house wouldn't constantly think of ways to blow money! (I'm looking at you DH and DD1)

Our New Home Choices

2011-12-02T20:41:00.000-06:00

So today we got to do the fun part of building a custom home. We made all our design selections!

Our interior paint is toasted almond by Pittsburgh paints with a white trim. Our exterior trim is a pale creamy almost yellow with bright white trim.

This is the light over our kitchen table. We have an over sized country kitchen so no dining room. I can't wait to sell my formal dining table and get a big farm house table for 6 or 8. All our light fixtures and door hardware are venetian bronze. Our wall and carpet colors are neutral beige. The hardiplank exterior of the house will be a pale yellow cream color with white trim.

The kitchen back splash is 6 by 6 travertine tile. It will be set on a diagonal. (All my pictures don't look true to the actual colors because they had some serious blue florescent lighting going on in there. Our stuff isn't gray at all...it is all very warm.)

This is our cabinet wood and stain choice for our kitchen and 2 of the bathrooms. This is our tile flooring for the foyer, kitchen, utility and 3 baths. It will be laid on a diagonal.

Our cabinets will be raised panel with the arch in the heritage below. Our interior doors will also have that arch.

Our bathroom counters will be a product called Tresca.

This is the tile for our showers and bathtub surrounds.

Our kitchen counters are granite in this color.

Our family room floors are wood like this.

Our front porch columns will have stone bases in this stone.

Our fireplace is this stone dry stacked with a dark stained cedar mantle.

I was really surprised how quickly our meeting went. We were supposed to take 3 hours and only took 1 hour and 45 minutes. We had done a lot of Internet research (I heart pinterest!) and took pictures and samples with us so it was easy to pick our selections. Of course now I'm having second thoughts about everything now.... When we weren't sure what we wanted we tried to just go with our initial gut feeling. I hope everything turns out okay!

Many, Many Updates (DH's job, Thanksgiving, and our housing project)

2011-11-28T11:30:00.020-06:00

Updated with Pictures!

DH's deer. He killed 2 this season.

Just wanted to update that my husband is doing much better. He had an evaluation and his evaluator almost managed a compliment. We are still hoping and praying that God had better things in the works. Thanks for the prayers.

One holiday is down. Thanksgiving. I will update with the few pictures I took later. We were supposed to leave on Sunday but postponed our trip until Wednesday due to bad weather predicted in the area we were traveling to.

We put the kids in daycare and didn't feel so bad about paying for a full week of care when they weren't even going to be there. So then I was able to get the tree up while the kids were in daycare and left a few choice ornaments for them to hang. I also decided to keep the decorations simpler and less cluttered this year. Having my living room look like toys r us threw up is enough clutter for me right now.

DH and I got to go on a date day and saw Breaking Dawn. I was just "meh" about it. DH just went to get out of the house. He is not a fan. I am still trying to think of pro-life slogans for bumper stickers. Maybe something like "If Bella can keep her demon spawn then you should too." Or how about, "He knew you before you were born...thankfully, you weren't named Renesme."

I got ill. Wednesday was a bad day for me. But traveling distracted me. We went to this indoor waterpark http://www.silverleafresorts.com/waterpark and the water was way too cold. I will not be going back in the winter again.

Thursday was my worst sick day. We drove 2 hours that day to DH's mother's family and I would look down and then look back up and wonder what just happened to the last 40 miles. It made a long trip pass quickly. I also have fallen asleep at least 3 times a day, during the middle of the day, since then. I think I have contracted sleeping sickness! Sleeping most of the day away at your in-laws can prevent a lot of other problems and anxiety too. (wink, wink)

Here is DH, the girls, and his grandmother (Mom's side).

While I was sick on the couch, they took some walks around the property.

Friday we went to the Caldwell Zoo (Love that zoo!) and hung out at the camper in Tyler State Park. That park is BEAUTIFUL by the way. They have a lot of gorgeous rolling hills. I hope to camp there again. Friday night we had dinner with DH's father's family.

(Cheap tip: we ran out of quarters for the fish food above. So we noticed that the food was all over the ground. DD1 spent 10 or 15 minutes feeding fish just by picking up the food off the ground. She had a blast. She didn't mind picking it up at all.)

This is DH with his uncle (Dad's side).

This is DH with his great uncle (Dad's side) at our 2nd Thanksgiving on Friday at Luby's.

DH's uncle and great uncle.

Left to right: DD1, Nanna, Great Aunt, DH's Dad, and Great Aunt.

We had planned a lot of stuff to do that whole week but shortening our trip and getting sick caused us to cancel some stuff. Next time we hope to see the Marshall Lights, The children's museum in Tyler, the Tiger Refuge in Tyler, and the Animal Safari in Jacksonville. The Tyler children's museum was rated very highly by parents magazine.

We have fixed many of the major problems with our travel trailer vacations. A) we were able to hook up the braking and turn signal lights. B) We put a memory foam pad on our bed and slept better. C) We realized that cooking while camping with kids aged 4 and under is overrated and a lot of work. D) We know that full sewer hookup is the only way to camp so that we don't have to dump once a day.

We encountered more problems while camping. A) the interior lights still don't work for some reason. We had lights for all of 1 hour before I turned them off and they wouldn't come back on again. B) Thank the good Lord that I brought a space heater or we would have frozen to death. C) Acorns falling on to the roof sound like gunshots in the middle of the night....sleeping well while camping is impossible.

And just so you know what it is like inside our camper, here is me in the bathroom, DD1 watching a dvd in her little sleeping hole, and DD2 is in the pack in play. They'll have a lot more room when she graduates out of that thing.

Saturday we came home. We had been in the door just a few minutes when we realized that DD2 had a fever of 104.3. She is currently at home having a rotten day. I'm crossing my fingers that she will be the last affected by this virus.

And now for an update on our house building. We get to pick all our colors and other selections on Friday. This is the funnest part so far. Then after that we need to work on the site some more. We have to clear it, install a culvert, install a construction road, set up water, septic, and electric before the house can actually be built.

This month is going to fly by. I can already feel it.

Open Prayer to God

2011-11-15T16:11:00.001-06:00

Dear God,

Thank you so much for the blessings you've given me. My husband, my beautiful girls, and for meeting all my needs. But something weighs heavy on my heart. It's my husband. You know that his enemies came against him today. You know that he was treated unfairly. You know that he is about to give up. You know that he doesn't have much fight left in him. He's put in 7 years trying to bloom where he was planted. Even when he felt he wasn't accomplishing anything worthy, You know he was able to influence souls for your glory. I just ask Lord that you would lift him up. That you would strengthen him. That you'd give him the will to fight. That you'd give him inspiration. That you'd give him supernatural energy. That you'd blind his enemies to his faults and give him favor. I pray that you'd give him peace. I pray that you'd give him longsuffering. I pray that you'd bind Satan on his campus. I pray that you'd cast the sadness and defeat away from him. I pray that even now as he feels there is no hope, that you'd remind him of your promises for us. Remind him that you promise to prosper us and not to harm us. That you promise to give us a hope and a future. I pray that you would give him direction. Put people in his path that deliver your message and not Satan's negativity. I ask that any curses placed upon him be broken. Help him put one foot in front of the other and open his eyes to the plans you have for him. I boldly ask that you clean house at his present job and make it a place he loves to be, or that you would lay a new job at his feet. Thank you. In Jesus's name, Amen.

I ask that any prayer warriors out there please pray for him as well. Thank you.

Beauty of this Mess-Family Holiday Drama

2011-11-14T17:30:00.000-06:00

Every year when the holidays are upon us, I contemplate not celebrating Thanksgiving at all. I've barely flipped the calendar to November and already people have had their feelings hurt. Thanksgiving was rarely celebrated around my home growing up. (Not that we weren't thankful.) But Thanksgiving is a huge holiday for my husband's family. Which is fine because then I don't have to go anywhere at Christmas. Christmas was always our family's big holiday.

Apparently there are expectations of us and every year my husband and I (or more likely just blame it on me...they all do) disappoint his family. I finally wised up after 10+ years and decided to ask just what exactly is expected of us. I was thinking that if we all communicate clearly, maybe we could save ourselves the drama every year.

I am still waiting on an answer. (I think people would rather just have someone to get mad at every year)

But anyway, I don't want to go down that rabbit hole.

But I do want to share something else.

I got an e-mail from an in-law saying her feelings were hurt. I jumped to conclusions and shot off an e-mail back of why my feelings were hurt too. My return e-mail was completely out of my flesh. I was so eager to participate in the fight that I didn't pray about what I was saying. Obviously my e-mail was not well received and didn't solve anything. Also I lost a lot of sleep over it.

I felt so wound up about it that I gave it over to God. I went out for a jog to blow off some steam. I turned on my worship music and just prayed about it. I love how God speaks to me in songs. I heard the lyrics "All I know is that You came and made beauty of my mess" That's from a song called Happy by Ayiesha Woods. Beauty of my mess just stuck out so much to me. While I was jogging, with God's help, I carefully constructed what my next e-mail would say.

I have not heard a thing back from my e-mail. Daniel 6:22 "...he shut the mouth of the lions"

Then this Sunday the first song sang was Happy by Ayiesha Woods. I couldn't believe it. They NEVER sing that song. God was giving me a confirmation that I was on the right path. I love it!

Pearle Vision gets the Stink Eye

2011-11-01T17:14:00.000-05:00

Why I’m giving Pearle Vision the STINK EYE!
DH had an appointment with our local Pearle Vision over the summer. He decided he needed his glasses prescription updated. He wanted new frames too. His current ones are 10 years old.

We’ve never had a problem with Pearle Vision in the past when getting contact lenses. We have vision insurance and usually pay no out of pocket beyond our co-pays.

When DH was checking in they asked him for his medical insurance (completely different from our vision insurance). He didn’t think to question why and just gave it to them. When I came over to see what was going on they said don’t worry…if they don’t pay we won’t bill you…and we won’t make you pay their co-pay either. She made it sound beneficial to us to file with our health insurance…like it would lower our out of pocket costs. But I get the feeling it doesn’t hurt you if you don’t have health insurance either. Sounds fishy right? They already had our vision insurance on file.

Then he had his eye exam. He declined the dilation. When he came out we searched for frames. We ended up picking some but then were completely floored when they said they don’t use the lab our insurance covers so it would be a $10 copay for the exam + $100 for the lenses + $90 out of our pocket for the frames. So even with vision and health insurance, we were paying $200 for an exam and a pair of glasses.

We decided his old frames would have to do for now and just got the lenses for a total cost of $110. In hindsight, we should have just taken the prescription to a lab that does accept our insurance. Not sure why that didn’t occur to us then.

As if all that wasn’t bad enough, here’s what insurance got billed:

Eye insurance was billed $110 for a routine eye exam.

Health Insurance was billed for an office visit and determination of refractive $126.

What’s the bottom line? Pearle Vision was paid $346.43 for an eye exam and lenses only.

I’ve finally given up getting any kind of action out of Pearle Vision for what I feel is a scam and that they are charging two different insurances for basically the same thing. I contacted our vision insurance and the first person I talked to took this very serious but wouldn't you know Pearle Vision's computers "were down" the day she tried to get them to look into it. When I called the vision insurance back the next day I got a dud who said she didn't see the problem. I have a feeling she was watching hulu when I called.

When I was hot and bothered about it I called Peale Vision about all of this and they made something up about DH having a retinal detachment and they "HAD" to file with the health insurance in order to let them know. This diagnosis was news to both of us because it was never mentioned at the appointment. I feel like they made it up while I was on the phone. And who HAS to charge something in order to let someone know about something? That would be like me saying hey honey, there is a weed in the flowerbed. Here let me send you a bill so that you know about it. HUH?

Out of curiosity I just called to see what an eye exam would cost if I walked in with no insurance…it would be $65 dollars.

NEVER GOING BACK!

October Recap

2011-10-31T23:59:00.001-05:00

October is a fun month for the kiddos.

We went to our little cousin's superhero birthday party. DD1 recycled her super girl costume from last year.

We went to two new Pumpkin Patches.

First we went to the exotic animal farm right up the road. I've lived here for 8 years and didn't know about it. Then, after we go, my brother casually mentions that he went to high school with the owners. Would've been nice if he had mentioned the place before!

The kids love the pumpkin patches. They like sitting on the pumpkins and moving them.

That's my mom in purple. She's helping DD2 play in the corn. What a neat idea.

DD1 wanted to paint a pumpkin. That pumpkin is still on our front porch in February and has not rotted yet!

They let us pet a baby kangaroo!

The girls had a lot of fun in this area playing with these balls too.

The next pumpkin patch was at the Seven Acre Wood

DD1 got over her fear of pony riding and loved this.

We all had a great time on the hayride.

And I just love this picture.

And we also went trick or treating. But first we had to decorate with our jack-o-lantern.

DD1 was The little mermaid and DD2 was Minnie Mouse. Poor baby got a fever and had to quit early.

I grabbed a witch costume out of our costume bin and dressed up too.

I also had to buy DD1 a new winter wardrobe. I reused a lot of her summer skirts by pairing them with tights. She wanted to pose in her new outfit.

Mammograms Save Lives (and Jesus does too!)

2011-10-31T11:15:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I had my first Mammogram back in July or August. Heck, I can't remember. They had one of those mobile mammogram buses come up to my work so I decided to try it out. I'm supposed to be getting yearly mammograms because of my family history. My Grandmother and Aunt both had breast cancer before the age of 36. My mom has had several scares but so far so good. Her testimony is that she has been healed of breast cancer...she said she felt the burning bosom...literally. And also both her and my dad (major skeptic) said the doctor at her last biopsy gave up trying to find the lump they spotted previously and he (the doctor) ran up and down the hall waving his arms saying it was a miracle, and "It's gone, It's gone, It's gone!"

But anywho, back to me. They called me after my first one and were like we need to do it again. I was like why? And they were like...possible skin fold. No biggie. Our bus will be back again in October. And I was like what? October...isn't that kinda far away? They were like it's ok, you can wait.

So I googled...decided I was going to die...then decided to call my OB...who helped me calm down and I somehow managed to wait until October without major paranoia and got my 2nd Mammogram.

The tech told me that I had what looked like a large vein and now that they had a picture of it, they probably wouldn't call me back because that would be normal for me.

Whew...I was relieved.

Then I got called AGAIN! They wanted a diagnostic mammogram and an ultrasound. And all this after I had just buried my friend at the age of 38 with two kids. And a girl I used to supervise with a daughter DD2's age just died of cancer. WTF? Really?

All I could think about was this might be my last Halloween with the kids...my last Christmas. Or about how much a biopsy might hurt...or how my reconstructed chest might look (sad thing is it would probably look better).

And I figured since I was going to die I might as well eat whatever I wanted. Don't ask me how many kit kats I can eat before I feel like throwing up.

I had to wait about 2 weeks to get to my 3rd mammogram. I was an emotional wreck that morning. I posted on facebook for prayer. I took a hot bath and played the Christian radio hoping it would give me an uplift. A song came on called Stronger by Mandisa. If you are going through something tough I recommend you listen to it.

I decided after hearing that song that I was due some good news in my life and I was gonna get it! So I arrived at my appointment. I waited over an hour in a packed waiting room with nothing but magazines for men (boy's life, field and stream, sport's illustrated, etc)...found out they wouldn't validate my parking because they told me to park in the wrong place and I was just about to scream when I decided to say a little prayer to hurry things up and what do you know, they called my name!

I went back, changed into the gown, was just about to freeze to death when I thought hey, prayer worked last time and I said a little prayer for them to hurry up and come get me and just like that...they did.

Then, the tech set me back in the freezer room and went to get the doctor. I was really getting nervous at this point. I mean, this was the before moment. You know...the moment right before my life might change forever. I said a prayer that they'd hurry up and come out and give me good news.

And they did.

The doctor said there was nothing special to see. He was going to cancel the ultrasound and I could go home and follow up in a year.

YES! I didn't realize that I wasn't breathing up until that point and I let out a big breath and looked at the ceiling and with tears starting to form I said...

Thank you God!

Ears Pierced!

2011-10-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

Somebody joined the big girl club!

A couple of nights ago DD1 came in after we had put her to bed and demanded that we go get her ears pierced right. I told her she'd have to wait because everything was closed and we'd go after school the next day.

I was so excited for her. I've been wanting her to do it forever but she always said she was too scared. When she was ready, she was ready. I think peer pressure at school got to her. I spent the next hour googling the subject and watching girls get their ears pierced on you tube. The ones that cried broke my heart.

I took her to Claires. She was soooo excited and bouncing around the store making a wishlist.

At first she picked Hello Kitty, then she laid her eyes on some HUGE CZ studs. DH said she is just like her momma...always wanting the biggest diamond. I told her that she'd have to get the little ones for 4 year old girls. So she got 3 mm White Gold CZ studs. So pretty!

She sat in the chair no problem. But then when she got the first one she looked at me so surprised and started crying. Bless her heart. The lady got the other one in though without her resisting too much and after a few minutes she was good to go. The lady doing it was awesome. She was great with kids. I got the whole thing on video but I'm not really ready to watch it. I don't like seeing her cry from pain.

After that we had a cookie and all was right with the world! By the way, the pumpkin cookies at Great American Cookie Company are AWESOME!!!

Then we went a did a little shopping at Gymboree. I lusted after this VEST & these BOOTS. Aren't they adorable! They had them paired with a pink shirt and jeens.

Remember this? I love my funky sweater...I love my funky sweater. How cute are these boots? How cute are these boots!

Soccer!

2011-10-20T10:34:00.000-05:00

I've always wanted to enroll DD1 in soccer or dance, or gymnastics. Because of our work/life schedule, taking her to these activities on the weekends or after work would a hardship. So I was so happy to learn that her school was offering soccer during school hours. I signed her up immediately.

After the initial free introductory class, that I wasn't aware of, she told me that she hated it. In fact, she burst into tears when I told her I already paid for the next 8 weeks. After every week she'd ask me if she was done yet. She is somewhat happier now that the weather is cooler since being HOT was one of her biggest complaints.

Last week I went and watched her. She had been in Soccer for 7 weeks. She minds her coach and does very well. But I can tell it is not her thing. The rest of the girls are happy-go-lucky while she really looks like she'd rather be somewhere else.

This reminds me of the verse in the bible.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, (and in keeping with his individual gift or bent) And when he is old he will not depart from it.

I don't think sports are in her future. She is still only 4 but I think she will be more of a girly girl. She loves clothes, perfume, makeup, jewelry, and singing.

Here Comes The Wagon!

2011-10-18T12:49:00.000-05:00

Oh my gosh!

Just get back on the D@M% WAGON!

Here it comes....get ready...JUMP!

Oh, you missed it again.

FAIL!

I've been totally eating every meal like it was my last for a while. I think my friend's death has got me thinking about what the point of eating well is if you can just die tomorrow. She died when she was working out for crap sakes!

Oh, and my lady lovin' friends at the boobie mobile want me back for a 3rd FREAKING TIME!

I'm trying not to have a pity party and get back to counting points. But it is so hard.

I have 10 points left for dinner. If I can make it through the day then I think I have a shot.

Pray for me.

Today I Buried A Friend

2011-10-12T18:57:00.000-05:00

Last Wednesday, early in the morning, my friend was jogging in the heights. She jogged that path numerous times. This time she was struck by a car.

Several hours went by and she never showed up for work. Her family began searching for her. They found her car where she normally jogged. Meanwhile the police, EMT, and hospital had no idea who she was because she wasn't carrying identification. Later, the hospital sent out her description and eventually the family found her that afternoon.

I was reading facebook headlines when I saw KHOU post the story with her description. Then I read the comments and someone had written my friend's name and said her family was in route to the hospital. I reread the description and my heart sunk and my mind hoped that it wasn't her. I e-mailed my friends to see if anyone could get in touch with her. My worst fears were confirmed when they said it indeed was my friend.

I've gotten bad news in my life many times. Sometimes I know without a shadow of a doubt that someone is going to be ok. Like I've known in my heart that someone would beat cancer. Other times I feel it in my gut that they aren't going to make it. I don't know if this intuition is God given, just a hunch, or complete coincidence.

I knew when I heard about my friend that she wasn't going to make it.

That didn't stop me from praying for her to be healed. I never gave up praying until her heart stopped beating. God did answer my prayers for healing...he has fully restored her in Heaven.

I saw her laying in that casket today and my mind finally accepted that she wasn't on earth anymore. I also felt the peace that passes all understanding. Despite all the sorrow, you could tell that her family was accepting of her death because they know where she is now.

And I know too. She is without a doubt in Heaven.

"You will know them by their fruits." Matt 7:16

My friend Susan's biggest fruit was Joy. She was joy in a human form. She always was smiling, laughing, and making sure everyone else was happy too. She is a living example of letting your light shine. People attending her service overflowed the rooms of the funeral home.

This week we've been living a little more like every day might be our last. You know one day we'll be right. If I die young I want the halls of my funeral home to be overflowing with the people who loved me. I want people to talk about my light too.

Tomorrow I'm dedicating my run to you. See you on the other side girl.

I love you thiiiiiiissssss much!

2011-10-11T17:16:00.000-05:00

Giving up on Weight Watchers Meetings

2011-10-07T07:00:00.001-05:00

Well, I'm giving up on Weight Watchers Meetings.

It was a downhill slippery slope once I started skipping meetings. I'd skip a bad weigh in week then try to spend the next week catching up so my official weight wouldn't show a gain.

Truth is, I'm burnt out on the meetings. After a year I just don't get excited about them anymore.

And my favorite leader quit. As much as I hated when she would acknowledge my success or failure PUBLICLY for the week, I needed that as motivation.

I swear that when I started running and exercising on a regular basis, my average loss per week plummeted. WTH?

I'm also pinching my pennies for the house so I really didn't want to pay $180+ for the next session that is starting.

For now I'm just sticking to the online plan.

My current goal is to lose 12 pounds by Thanksgiving. That's 7 weeks away. That's 1.7 pounds a week. My average for the last few months has only been a half pound a week. So, I'm probably setting myself up for failure.

Oh well. At least it is a goal and I'll get somewhere.

My rules:

1) Remember to take my Alli before my meal.
2) Use 5 points for breakfast, 7 for lunch, and the rest on dinner. But if I'm not starving, then I won't push myself to eat all my points.
3) My snacks shall be fruit...not snickers...not oreos...not doritos. In general I'm going to avoid sugar and chocolate because it is a hard thing to stop.
4) I'm not going to eat my activity points.
5) I'm only going to use 1/2 my weekly points.

If I do most of these, most of the time, I'm bound to lose weight right?

Random Ramblings

2011-10-06T17:30:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine was hit by a car while jogging yesterday. My heart is burdened for her. The outlook is not good. She has an 18 year old daughter and an 11 year old son. I haven't talked with her in a while but I can see her face so clearly. She is the type of person that is always smiling and happy.
My tailbone hurts...and sometimes my hip. I don't know if this is the result of falling down on my bike last Saturday, jumping on the trampoline Saturday, or running again after 2 weeks off.
I've made over $500 selling baby stuff at a garage sale, at work, and on craigslist. This weekend the rest goes to the consignment shop this weekend.
People who contact me from Craigslist are weird. Like the GUY who bought my breast pump.
I am so bloated. I feel like I need someone to squeeze me really hard so I can just fart it all out. TMI sorry.
I got my boobies squeezed and some pasties at my mammogram today. The woman was way too jolly. And her haircut suggested that she likes women. Like really likes them. Just saying.
I need to just get BRAC tested so I can skip the whole mammogram thing.
I have a million and one things to do. None of them are that important so I just keep procrastinating.
We are in a food rut at our house. I need to meal plan. I shouldn't get seriously angry when DH asks me what I want to do about dinner.
DD2 is going through terrible twos already. But she is so cute when I tell her I love her and she says "too."
It is annoying to receive 3 boxes of hand me downs that are 10 years out of date and stained. And the ones that are good are 5 sizes to big for your oldest kid. Am I supposed to keep these around for 5 years? And what's worse is having to act like you are very grateful because this person gets their panties in a wad easily and she wants them back if you don't use them. They specifically said that this time because last time I joked about the dress that was straight off the poligimist compound and how we donated everything to Goodwill. So how do I give them back and say Thanks, but No Thanks for this worthless crap and you probably shouldn't bother saving anything for us in the future?
Maybe she reads this blog and I won't have to.

A Quick Trip to San Antonio

2011-10-05T07:00:00.013-05:00

The weekend before last we took a quick trip to San Antonio to view the full size model of the floorplan we've been looking at. Really it was more of a formality as we had pretty much decided to build that floorplan. I think we both had to prove to ourselves that we had been diligent in our research.

By the way, we are under contract now. We have our construction manager meeting us at our site on Monday. We will soon have soil testing underway. Sometime in the next 90 days we should be closing our construction loan and breaking ground. I am intentionally dragging my feet at every turn. I don't want this house finished a day before May 1st. Anytime after May would be dandy.

We are also pinching our pennies more than ever and weren't very happy to find out that MeMaw couldn't babysit for us so that we could just have a quick day trip. So instead we booked a room since we knew the kids couldn't handle that much driving in only one day.

After touring the model home we checked into our hotel and used their shuttle service to get to downtown San Antonio.

We made an obligatory stop to pose in front of the Alamo.

Mostly we walked the Riverwalk and we ate at Cafe Ole because it smelled the best and we wanted Mexican because we were in San Antonio gosh darnit!

It was ok...I'll take Chuy's or Pappasitos any day over that place.

Then we rode the boat. Whenever we travel and do tourist type things I'm always nostalgic about my childhood trips where my Dad was too cheap to let us do anything like that. Or, he'd send me by myself to save money. When I was in 6th grade I rode a train between Georgetown and Silver Plume in Colorado by myself while my parents tried to watch as they drove along the highway near the train tracks.

With parents like that I can't believe I still have all my teeth.

After the boat we went to Marble Slab for some ice cream for all of us that was over 15 dollars. Dad wouldn't be proud about that.

The next morning we checked out of our hotel bright and early because of La Cucaracha. They are huge in San Antonio. We only saw 2 big ones and 4 babies. The babies came out after I killed their Daddy and Mommy. I guess they were sad. Also DD2 thought that Mommy screaming and stomping her feet was the neatest game!

I went to the checkout and told them that I needed a credit because I expected a hotel room to be roach free if I'm paying $130 per night. To my surprise, she credited it 100%! I couldn't wait to tell Dad.

We went shopping at the Marketplace and ate at Mi Terra. They have a fabulous bakery.

It was a good trip!

Camping at Yogi Bear Park

2011-10-04T11:30:00.000-05:00

Do you remember me blogging about my Dad liking to get his money's worth out of things? Well, he kept bugging me about our next trip in the camper after our Mustang Island Trip. I had a hard time even thinking about camping again after the problems on that trip. I needed to go back to work just to get a vacation. But anyway, I stumbled across the Yogi Bear Campground and it looked like a fun place to spend the weekend. So I scheduled our trip.

Dad arrived with the camper and it was infested with ants. They were the tiny little sugar ant kind. By the way, after a while you just kind of get used to the idea that you are probably eating them.

When DH hooked up his truck we discovered that the wires were crossed and the electronic braking system did not work. So we had to drive to the campground without tail lights. This made DH extremely anxious on the drive over. Combine his anxiety with loud kids and it wasn't a fun ride.

When we arrived at the campground we discovered we had everything but lights. Thank God the AC still worked. DH's temper was at code orange so I took the girls to explore the park and try to find some hot food. We found out the only hot food option in the park had just closed for the evening. In our attempt to take things easier this trip, we only brought stuff for hamburgers and cold sandwiches and had planned to rely on the snack bar.

After our cold sandwich dinner it was time for our one activity of the evening to start. We went to the outdoor movie theater and watched The Crystal Skull. That's Jim Henson's acid trip of a movie with muppets. I was scared out in the middle of the woods watching that movie. I was sure that DD1 would be freaked out that night. Luckily we didn't have any problems.

The next morning I figured we'd be freshly rested and have a wonderful family day.

We went to the Petting Zoo because that was the only thing open at the crack of down. Why do my kids have to be the earliest risers in the whole campground?

Then we went to Comfyland. Actually that place is pretty awesome. I just sat on the floor and relaxed and the kids went nuts.

DH wanted to play the shooting game in the arcade with DD1. Due to his shooting excellence and lack of understanding of the female 4 year old, he didn't realize that shooting with correct form is not as important as just having fun. This resulted in meltdown level 10.

Next we went to the putt putt golf course and checked out the camp store.

Then it was time for a nap for DH and DD2 while DD1 and I went to arts and crafts.

After arts and crafts the plan was for us all to spend the day at the water park. But DH and DD 2 SLEPT ALL DAY. Not even kidding. DD1 and I had a lot of fun at the waterpark. I was brave enough to go down the highest slide there. And I also took DD 1 to the ice cream social...we were the first in line! DH finally got up around 7 (AT NIGHT) when he discovered I was lighting our charcoal with about half a gallon of lighter fluid.

After our delicious cheeseburgers we were in a race to get showered and get to the funnel cake stand before the movie started that evening. They closed the stand early! It about broke my heart to see the disappointment on DD1s face.

Anyway, the next thing we did was watch what else but Yogi Bear the movie.

The next morning we attended the Pancake Breakfast and their church service. Both of which were good. We also went back to the waterpark and played until the last minute when we had to check out. I told DH how I had ridden the big slide and he needed to do it too. I didn't tell him that you actually catch some serious air on the way down. I had a good laugh at his expense.

We will definately be back to Yogi Bear!

Well I might as well post about last weekend

2011-09-22T16:29:00.000-05:00

Since it is almost Friday I might as well post about what we did last weekend.

Saturday we were up bright and early to go to my very first official 5K run. I ran the whole thing. I also found out that my pedometer is pretty much wrong. For every .8 miles it says I've run, I've actually run a whole mile. So this whole summer I've been running further than I thought.

So anyway, I finished in 41minutes and 39 seconds.

When I came around the last turn I saw my family cheering me on. I also hit a point in the song on my ipod where the tempo sped up (Fix You by Cold Play). I think the combination of the two created an emotional and physical response that had me bolting down the last stretch. When I crossed the finish line I thought I was going to throw up.

DH said he was misty eyed watching me and very proud. All weekend long he kept saying he was proud. I was proud too. This was one of those bucket list things I've always wanted to do. It was a great bonus to do it in front of my girls. I want them to see their Momma doing healthy things and grow up being healthier than I was.

Anyway, after that was over I took DD1 to see Lion King 3D. I sat next to a Hispanic family that smelled like a full course fajita dinner. I'm not even kidding. I was starving after that. DD1 enjoyed the movie...it was her first 3D movie. My chest ached with nostalgia. It was awesome to watch my daughter enjoy a movie that I had seen in the theaters myself as a kid.

Best opening to a movie ever.

On Sunday we met our builder at our lot and he pretty much affirmed that we have picked a great lot. I have just a few more questions before we actually sign on the dotted line and get this house rolling.

I'm so excited!

More Summer Stuff

2011-09-20T07:30:00.000-05:00

This summer we went on lots of evening bike rides. Oh how I love getting my exercise in while DD1 is begging to go home and watch cartoons or telling me that we are lost. DD2 likes it it a lot though.

DD 1 turned a game piece into her own new set of...well you get the idea.

Here's a picture of DD1s toes after her first professional pedicure. Poor child got her father's pinky toe nail. They barely had anything to paint.

Right after this picture was taken she said in her zombie voice, "Need More Chocolate!"

She settled for some soap.

Dad's 65th Birthday

2011-09-19T07:00:00.000-05:00

We were lucky enough to have Dad at the house on his 65th birthday. Actually he came to town for his cousin's birthday party and to bring us the travel trailer so we could go to Yogi Bear. Then while he was here my great aunt passed so he stayed for the funeral. That was a really busy week.

DD1 sang him happy birthday and picked out his pink cake. He is eating all the attention up. He claimed it was the only birthday party he ever got. Oh boo-hoo. So not true.

Then she blew out his candles for him.

Mom & Dad

And Dad & DD1 make the 6-5 sign with fingers. Tons of my childhood photos are marked this way so we can always remember how old the birthday person was.

Belated First Day of School Picture

2011-09-16T07:00:00.000-05:00

Previous years

http://memorylanememoirs.blogspot.com/2010/08/first-day-of-school.html

Visiting my Grandma

2011-09-15T07:00:00.002-05:00

Back in July we also went to visit my Grandma at the Nursing Home. She was having a good day. She claimed she remembered me. She loved to watch DD2.

Man the people in that nursing home LOVE kids. They all perked up and got big smiles when my little ones were running around. One took such a liking to DD1 that even DD1 was giving her lots of loving before we left. I know she looks terrified but she kept begging to go hug this woman. I think her name was Mary.

My Grandpa feels left out because everyone goes to visit Grandma at the nursing home but no one ever visits him in his hometown anymore. Normally we only visit him at the nursing home when we see Grandma. We made the day special by making our trip include eating with him too. By the way, this was the restaurant that DD1 busted her head on the table in back when she was around 2 on Mother's day. We ended up in the ER that day. I was extra cautious to keep that from happening again!

Grandpa and my mom.

It was a fun day!

Texas Wildfires & Getting on Fire for God

2011-09-14T11:30:00.001-05:00

I’ve watched the wildfires closely for the last week and a half. At one point they were as close as 15 miles away from our new lot with “all the pretty trees” that we had just went out and admired the day before the fires started.

Here's DH pulling up the for sale sign.

The street facing side.

A view in the lot. It has been cleared in the middle.

The fires were moved by the wind away from our property. Something you can’t even see saved us. That got me thinking about God and how you can’t see him either but he has a powerful effect on our lives.

What if I told you about a secret place I used to go in the woods as a child and that I’ve buried my childhood treasures there? You’ve never seen them. You can deny that they exist but it doesn’t make them any less real.

I just don’t get how someone can deny that there is a God. I have doubts all the time (who wouldn’t?). But, when I think about the prayers that shouldn’t have been answered, the miracles that shouldn’t have happened, the first cry of a baby being born, and all the countless wonders of creation I cannot deny that there is a God.

Recently DD1 came home from school and said her teacher told her that Jesus didn’t really come back after he died. At first I was deeply upset that she’d have the nerve to impose her beliefs on my child. Then I rationalized that it could just be a misunderstanding. I even thought about talking to her teacher to get to the bottom of it. I imagined the worst case scenario of having to pull her from the school. But, then I thought about how far too often as Christians we try to shelter our children so much that they have no idea how to be a Christian in a non-Christian world. The last thing I want is for my kids to miss an opportunity to be a "shining light."

Philippians 2:15 "That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;"

I decided to take this opportunity to tell my daughter that not everyone believes the same way that we do. It doesn’t make them bad people. It doesn’t mean we can be their friend or respect them as our teacher. And then I reinforced what we believe because ultimately it is an opportunity for me as well. I’ve got to be sure that I share my faith with her and share it often. If I don’t teach her, then someone else will.

Old MacDonald's Farm

2011-09-12T11:30:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to catchup on my summer activities that I missed blogging. Here's one of many posts to come.

One Saturday after our Mustang Island trip DH went to take his CHL class so I decided to take the girls out for a day of fun. This was the one day all summer that it rained I think. Anyway, we hungout in the rain for as long as we could stand it and had a good time. Actually I think that the weather made the animals a little more frisky and fun. DD1 was about to flip her lid when I was filming DD2 (not paying attention to DD1) and this sneaky Peacock was slowly coming up behind me. I'll never forget how she was bouncing up and down and basically just freaking out because I wouldn't look. I thought her eyes would bug right out of her head.

My head is a friggin' mess.

2011-09-01T07:30:00.002-05:00

My head is a friggin' mess right now. It is probably because I haven't blogged in a sweet forever. Blogging is like Therapy...like a deep clean of your mind. Just getting it out and letting it go is so beneficial. Why else would women post their to-do lists and meal plan on the internet. Why else would other women read that?

So anyway. August was hot. It was so hot that I have lost my motivation to do a lot of things. Like I don't feel like exercising, or eating right, blogging, cooking, or doing much of anything really. I want to dive in a cold bed, put tin foil on the windows and watch about 4 movies in a row completely in the dark. I have managed to eat ok most of the time so I'm not gaining but still I'm paying a lot of money to avoid the scale at my weight watchers meetings. I also am supposed to do a 5K in a couple of weeks so I'm still motivated (a little) to run. I love the reactions when people say, "You ran outside?" Yep...I'm on the edge. (We've had triple digit temps for about a month straight.)

In addition to the heat I have been so busy. I think I remember taking pictures of the first day of school and going camping at Yogi Bear. I'll have to check my camera to be sure that it all took place for real. Work has been a little busier too. Oh yeah and we did end up buying the land we looked at.

I seriously can't even remember how we found the lot anymore. How crazy is that? I think I was goofin' around on the internet one day and saw it. Next thing I knew we were going to look at it after work. Then we were making an offer and last week we closed. But you know that's how crazy we ended up finding our last house. We just toured a model and then made an offer the next day. We hadn't even looked at a house in the 6 months prior! When you know...YOU KNOW.

So now I spend a lot of time looking at floorplans. I thought I knew exactly what I wanted.

2 story
1st floor master
4 bedrooms or 3 bedrooms with a game room.
no diningroom, formal living room, or study (just wasted space for us)
attached garage.
2000-2500 square feet. We live in 1900+ now.

But then these builders I talk to start messing with my head. So I feel like I've taken two steps backward.
I'm questioning whether 2500 is too big for us? Whether I really want a 2 story? Do I really want an attached garage since insurance and taxes may be cheaper without it? It is driving me mad.

And then when I find something I like, DH doesn't approve. He keeps asking me to sketch out what I want in a house. Sounds simple right? I tried for 2 hours and finally threw it all away and realized why architechts get paid so much.

This morning I shut down my file where I kept my notes on all the stuff we looked at for the last 2 days and I accidently hit "don't save."

(sniff) :(

Advice for Starting Your New Job

2011-08-11T11:15:00.000-05:00

I have a friend who is nervous about starting a new job this month after taking some time off to be with her kids. It was a struggle to get back into the workforce with the job market the way it is so she wants to be exceptionally good. I had an e-mail chain with her and another friend and this was the advice I gave her. I wish I could quote the source for the numbered lists at the bottom. It was probably a Monster.com article from around 2006. If you know it, let me know and I put the source out there.

Anyway, we all thought it was good advice and my friend even thought it should be in the Houston Chronicle. LOL! I guess that is why I like to blog. I write far more than I ever say.

Really like your new co-worker? Just remember...she is not your friend...yet. Even though she may seem chummy...keep it professional.
And don't be late.
Your clothes don't have to be expensive. Just look neat and presentable. I get compliments all the time on my clothing that comes from Ross...
Don't leave your cell phone with JT's Sexy Back as your ring tone on in your purse when you leave for lunch. Speaking from experience. I was working on a open trading floor at the time.
I wouldn't give anybody your work phone number or work e-mail for maybe 3 months. Just use your cell and take your personal calls elsewhere. Leave your personal life at home. Seriously...you are not interviewing anymore, you got the job...they don't need to know anymore about you. It is your job now to learn about them. Later you will figure out who wants to hear your stories about your kids or whatever and who could care less. It is never your bosses problem that your home life, financial, whatever isn't going well.
Consider your first 90 days as probation. Just be yourself and don't stress out but also be on point the whole time. You will never be a better employee to them than you are during those 90 days and they know that. So if you aren't giving your best effort and taking everything seriously that first 90 days then they'll start thinking about how you are going to act in a year when you are comfortable with them.
Don't question your boss or try to go against the grain. Even if they suggest you try something you know won't work you should try it first. They won't mind that you tried and failed...what will make them mad is if you never try.
Don't ever leave them wondering where you are. If you have to go to your car for something let them know. Going to a meeting?...to HR?? Put a sticky on your door...or in your case your computer. Or next thing you know there will be a rumor that you leave in the middle of the day or go take naps in your car, etc.
Get away from your desk at lunch. Don't cut coupons or make stuff for your kids, pay bills, anything like that. Go to your car or do it in a quiet cafe somewhere. Don't keep a lot of personal junk out on your desk.
Keep your work area organized.
Figure out who is liked/not liked. Don't make friends with the Chatty Cathy. It will only get you in trouble. Don't make friends with the person who complains about everything. They probably don't like her either.
Don't put out feelers yet for other jobs or areas of the company. Even if you only think this is your foot in the door job.
Don't get hung up on ordering office supplies. Order as little as you can get by with. Nobody likes the new girl who orders a crapload of new matchy matchy supplies. You probably won't have much space anyway.
Keep a compact mirror on your desk and check yourself regularly. Don't want any bats in the cave. LOL!
Bring your girly goods...you don't want to have to ask to borrow a tampon. This is not the locker room.
Easy on the perfume since you are close to other people.

Advice I wrote down from an article (probably monster.com around 2006)

how to build a great relationship with the boss

1) Watch & Learn

2) Keep in Touch

3) Look/Act Professional

4) Demonstrate Initiative

5) Do great work

4 ways to earn respect

1) You don't know what you don't know

2)Sincere Thank You's

3)Few go above and beyond (be the few)

4)Listening is highly underrated.

Good luck to anyone who is starting a new job!

I'm linking this up with What Works for me Wednesday at www.wearethatfamily.com

Just a follow up to our trip to the dentist and other random junk.

2011-08-04T07:00:00.001-05:00

We survived the dentist. I repeated it is ok to be scared 1000 times because she kept telling me she was scared. We went in the room and I laid in the chair with her on top of me and promised to grab her and run if anything hurt.

No dice.

She flipped. I looked at the lady and said, "Gas or something...please?" She said that we could try coming back or hold her down.

So hold her down it was. Because I wasn't coming back a 3rd time. And anyway, all she was learning was that throwing a fit would get her out of there.

So I held her in a big bear hug. And used my foot to keep her from kicking. A 2nd nurse held her head while they cleaned. After a few seconds she calmed down a little when she realized that it didn't hurt. She didn't completely quit crying until we left though.

She got her bouncy ball from the dentist and a sticker and in the hallway she told me she was going to be scared next time too.

Great!

In the car I gave her her little mermaid toy she earned. And after work that night I took her for her first big girl pedicure. She got pink with flowers on the toes. Her mouth is full of chocolate chip cookies they gave her.

At the church nursery last week and at her new school this week, her teacher cannot get over how well DD2 talks for her age. I'm a proud mommy. And I love when other people say things about my kids so then I know it is true and I'm not just one of those moms...you know the ones...Yesterday at the park she said, "I'm Swinging!" I don't know where she gets the gift of gab from (wink) I think it has something to do with her father and her Nana....

I bought myself a new 7 speed cruiser bike and it is pink. I love it! We have so much fun riding now in the evenings. Now I want a basket, a bell, and a cup holder and some pink tassels. LOL! Is this like a mid life crisis when men get sports cars? Am I getting the bike of my youth that I always wanted? :)

Also we have submitted an offer on land. I hope all goes through. It is .7 acres on a cul-de-sac in a forested neighborhood. We are so excited. Since I have seen a ton of people promoting pinterest lately I thought I'd use it to create an inspiration board for our new house. Check it out. If you want to join and start making your own boards of whatever you want, let me know and I'll send you an invite.

http://pinterest.com/memorylanemem/new-home-inspiration/

I've pinned a houseplan on the site too...we really like it and it only has 3 bedrooms. But they are all large. We have 4 bedrooms now but the secondary rooms are tiny. There is a bonus room that we could finish later. Since we tend to have houseguests that stay, and stay, and stay...(did I just write that?) maybe a nice guestroom isn't a good thing to have. LOL!

Prayers Needed!

2011-08-02T07:00:00.002-05:00

Pray for us today. DD1 is going to the dentist.

This is her second attempt. Two months ago DH took both girls and DD1 couldn't make it through the appointment. I think they counted the top teeth and then she freaked out. Screaming, crying, yelling. The dentist suggested we try again with a different parent in a couple of months. (I think what they really meant was get your screaming kid out of my office now!) So today is my turn.

Here is what we've tried.

We've read Berenstain Bear's Go to the Dentist.
We've watched you tube videos of a stuffed alligator getting his teeth cleaned.
We've watched you tube videos of little kids having no problem at the dentist.
We've let her pick out a toy and she gets to open it after she completes her trip to the dentist.
I've promised to take her out for whatever junk food she wants and a trip to the nail salon if she completes her dental appointment.
I even showed her cell phone pictures that I snapped of last year when she went and had problems. She says she can't remember.
I've shown her the numerous fillings in my mouth and explained that I didn't go to the dentist until I was in 4th grade and that is why I had to have all these fillings put in my mouth. And if she would keep going every year that she wouldn't have to go through that like me.

But last night she was raging and crying when she found out we are going today. I mean like I had to leave the room and told her I'd come back when she calmed down. It was that bad. I finally just had to say that I'm sorry you don't want to go, but we are going and then I walked out.

This morning, first thing, she says that she doesn't want to go to the dentist.

I don't know what has her so scared. For a while she said she was scared of the light. I said she can wear sunglasses or maybe I can even get them to do it without the light. Then she'll just cry and say she doesn't want to go.

Nothing is calming her....NOTHING.

I hope they give her gas...and maybe I can take a hit or two also.

Goodwill to Good Lawd!-Updated with Picture

2011-07-25T11:59:00.005-05:00

I was having brunch with some old co-workers this past weekend. We had a good time catching up. I enjoyed the girl talk. It was a very much needed "me" day without the kids. After our brunch at La Madeline we had cupcakes at The Cupcakery and we also saw Horrible Bosses at the movies. It was so funny.

Some of our conversations got me to thinking though.

My friend P asked me "Are those sunglasses Brighton?"
"No, they are from Goodwill." I said.
"Then they might be Brighton." said P. (I realize now she thought I bought used sunglasses. These were new with the tags on at Goodwill.)
"Good-what?" said my friend V.
"Goodwill. And no they are not Brighton because I also bought a 2nd pair of the same ones from a street vendor at a festival. Oh and they were only $4 at Goodwill and $8 from the street vendor. I'm hard on sunglasses so no sense in spending a ton on something I'll lose or scratch."

Later it was revealed that V was hoping that the nearby Tiffany's would have the sunglasses she had been wanting.

I flashed back to the time my friend V commented on my dining room curtains. She liked them.

"Who's the designer?" V asked.
"Um....JCPenny...."

When we decided to get cupcakes at The Cupcakery they commented how they weren't as pretty as the ones at Sprinkles. I was more concerned that it better taste good since I just dropped $3.50 on a cupcake. Do you know how much cake you can get for that at HEB?

Then we ended up talking about HEB since we were right by one. They wanted to know if it was like the Central Market.

What the heck is Central Market?

While we were eating our cupcakes P noticed a girl walking by in some elf looking shoes.
"Those are those Tom's shoes. And she is wearing Miss Me jeans."
I finally had to say it. "Y'all, I love being brand oblivious. I had no idea what she was wearing."
Then the subject changed to budgeting and I was asked a lot of questions.

These are the same friends that almost had me convinced that I needed A Coach Purse, A Fleurville Diaper Bag, A Bugaboo Stroller, and that there are no other baskets like Longaberger Baskets. When we all stopped working together my wants got a little less expensive. I also became a better steward of what God has blessed me with and now that I could actually afford all those items, I don't want them. Amazing how that happens, huh?

Now, I'm no redneck woman. I don't shop for everything at Wal-Mart. I do spend & splurge from time to time. I can laugh at myself too. You know where my last purse came from? Buc-ees. Yes, the home of the beaver nugget. When I bought my purse I may have also had a corn dog on the same ticket.

But for the most part I try to use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. How do people even learn about those high end brands anyway? Remind me to stay away because I like being in the dark. You can't want what you don't know about.

Hey kids! Remember that time your mom went Ape poop crazy...

2011-07-20T07:00:00.001-05:00

...and thought it would be fun to take a picture with a Monkey looking for bugs in her hair? Oh yeah, and the Monkey's name was April. Yeah, that was crazy...

Boogie Boarding

2011-07-19T07:00:00.004-05:00

Prior to our vacation I found a couple of really good books in the bargin bin at Walmart. They were hardbacks for only $5. I love reading a hardback. I think it is my prefered way to read from now on.

Anyway, one of them was called Body Surfing by Anita Shreve It was a good book to put me in the mood for the beach. I also really wanted to buy a boogie board and go boogie boarding after reading the book. I ended up buying one at the grocery store but it was kid sized and really couldn't keep an adult floating. But we had a good time trying anyway.

At first DD2 was really scared to go in the water. In my attempt to teach her not to go too deep I think I scared the fun out of her. You can pretty much tell what happened here from the pictures.

We had fun pulling DD2 along too.

At one point she stood up and kept her balance like a surfer. Of course never in a million years could I get her to do it again for a picture.

I love this picture!

Our 2011 Family Vacation Mustang Island, Port Aransas, Corpus Christi, and Rockport

2011-07-18T13:54:00.000-05:00

I scheduled a week of vacation around the 4th of July but had no real plans. I figured something would come along even if it was a staycation.
Well, something came along. My dad bought a used 21 foot travel trailer. He would only buy it if we promised to use it too. Because, like all you can eat buffets, Dad likes to get his money's worth.

I've got pride in my ride it's my swagger wagon...

So we decided to rent a campsite at Mustang Island State park. That is the barrier island right above Padre Island. He kept trying to get us to rent a no electricity, no water, camp on the beach, spot at the National Seashore on North Padre Island. He doesn't know me at all. "Hi, I'm April and my version of the Apocalypse is having no air conditioning. Yeah, nice to meet you Dad."

Anyway, the beaches are really nice there. On a calm day, the water is clear up to your thighs. Not like Galveston at all.

Want to know what the RV was like? Pick the smallest room in your house and get 3 other people and live there for a week. Oh, and then have your mother tell you the operating procedures at least once a day for 2 weeks prior to your vacation. If I ever hear about RV toilet sanitation procedures again it will be too soon.

I went insane. Apparently I'm more claustrophobic than I think. And I can scream "Shut the door, you're letting all the air out!" about 50 times a day with no problem. At one point I started singing and dancing for DD1 to "get out, get out, get out of my way!!!!" She didn't realize I had completely lost my mind at that point. She laughed but DH knew that look in my eye and took her outside quickly. She had camped out under my left arm pit and "followed" me around the trailer for about 5 minutes too long that day. (You can't really follow in a trailer that small...you just kind of pivot.)

Every night I would crawl under the covers and eat Chocolate and pray to survive another day. Totally.not.kidding. Also, thank God for Redbox and Wifi and pain killers. My back would alternate from being a stabbing pain to going numb.

Two nights we came home to find that we had low voltage. Our plug terminals were dirty.

For 3 nights we had no hot water. Since 3 of us took all our showers in the bath house at the campground that wasn't a big deal except for poor DD2. She took some cold baths and it was no surprise that she came down with a cold while we were on vacation. When we relit the pilot light we found out that the hot water tank needed to be flushed and we were subjected to the rottenest of rotten egg smells for about 48 hours after that. And I was convinced that it wasn't the hot water heater but rather it was gas and we were all going to explode and that DH did not care if we all died.

We had to dump the tanks about once a day. That means you have to pack up the trailer and do a bunch of work and then reset up once a day. Most of the time this was done in the blazing heat as well.

In fact, there is a lot of work in RV'ing. Especially at the beach. I was pretty much the one to make sure all our suits and towels were hanging and drying out at all times. I packed our food and drinks in the cooler. I refilled bottles of fresh water for a the beach. I loaded up the toys and floats in the truck. I made sure we had our bath kits ready so we could go to the bath house straight from the beach. I always restocked our cold drink supply. I washed dishes. I prepared food. I applied the sunscreen to everyone. It is a TON of work.

DH and I squabbled over everything. There's not much love to be had in that close of quarters. In fact, my kids were subjected to some very colorful language. It reminded me of my own childhood vacations where someone would always threaten to just ride a bus home if only the driver would just stop the car. And there's not a whole lot of time to be alone with God and pray either. I felt very distant from him during that week.

DD1 was misbehaving a lot that week. I think she had a lack of sleep since she didn't nap that caused her to make bad choices. She can go without a nap now but we usually force her to take one. It was hard to make her nap in that RV.

The beach got old after about 5 days. Even for me and the kids who love the beach.

The camel was buried in a big straw sack when an hour into our ride home we broke down. My "cheap" vacation suddenly went up almost 900 dollars. And I lost a day of vacation from work. And DD1's shoes decided to break then too. She almost ran across the busy highway to chase her daddy too. When I yelled at her to stop she got her feelings hurt and cried for almost 30 minutes. Then DD2 started crying and I sat there in a broken truck on the side of the road listening to two kids cry and I stopped and prayed the most I had all week. When you don't make time for God, he will make you have time.

Thankfully my parents came to rescue us. We waited over 2 hours for a wrecker. We had to unload everything from our truck back into the trailer on the side of a highway. I was so ready to take a long hot bath and sleep in my own bed and yet I was denied for another day.

Am I crazy? But we are already planning a trip to Yogi Bear Jellystone Park next month.

I'll admit...we did have a little fun. And now that we've survived once we should know what to do better next time. And even in the midst of the chaos and heartbreak there was always something to be thankful for, or appreciated.

I love people watching in the campground. I swear our neighbors one night were polygamists. It was one old dude and 4 women. I figured Jim Bo, the oldest kid ,was at home taking care of the 40 other children.

And then there was the man and 5 boys tenting to us for a while. They disappeared the whole day and into the night. We were going to call the coast guard the next morning but then they showed up. Turns out they were deep sea fishing 35 miles out and left at daylight and didn't get home until midnight.

OK, picture time!

We went to the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi.

The coolest thing they've added is the splash pad. Here DD1 gets me and DD2 wet.

Feeding the birds is always a favorite activity for both girls.

We even tried a little fishing.

I found joy in watching a sunset.

We went to the candy shop in Port Aransas. If you are ever there, get some of "The Good" candy. it is awesome!

We cooked a steak dinner and had my parents come over. We celebrated MeMaw's birthday a little late with Chocolate Cake.

We went go cart riding. I am getting old because this made me nauseous.

We did a lot of shopping and sight seeing. DD1 wanted her picture in front of this mermaid.

DH sunk his canoe "white water rafting" in the choppy ocean. He lost his bait and fishing pole but recovered the pole and his boat.

DD2 is a huge fan of the beach. She loved sitting in DD1's chair like a big girl.

She also loved having her private window to look out since we put her pack in play on top of one of the beds.

DD1 got into MeMaw's makeup the night our truck broke down. She snuck into the bathroom and shut the door. She was in there a while so I went to check and sure enough she was applying mascara. I couldn't believe how well she did. She was so scared that I was going to be mad. All I could do by that point was laugh.

Oh, and yes I realize my new header has my mouse in the middle of the canoe picture. I'll fix it when I feel like it!

4th of July Weekend

2011-07-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

So can you tell by my new header that we've been on vacation?

I've been going back and forth about how to wrap up this vacation. I'm stalling. I've got several takes on it since it was a mini disaster but I don't think I'm ready to commit yet. I think I'm still processing.

Meanwhile, I'll tell you that we had a pretty good 4th of July weekend. We stayed home. One reason was that I really didn't want to start my vacation out on a holiday weekend. We figured we'd watch the local firework show. FAIL: It was cancelled. Also DH had a man date with the neighbor to watch UFC and we also promised to have church and lunch on Sunday with the same neighbor as well. And perhaps the most compelling reason we didn't start our vacation over the weekend was because my niece was visiting in town and I hadn't seen her in a couple of years and wanted DD1 and DD2 to meet their cousin.

Here was my attempt at a cute patriotic photo. This was the best one. DD1 looks like she is about to spin her head around and vomit pea soup. And DD2 won't look at the camera.

Everybody was happy to go swimming with my niece though.

So maybe I'll get around to recapping that "vacation" we had before the weekend. And then again, maybe not.

Almost Wordless Wednesday. Mom is visiting.

2011-07-13T14:33:00.000-05:00

Remember how I blogged that she cuts the bread bags down short when they get to the end? She was at my house for less than 24 hours when I found this...

Wordless Wednesday-Playtime

2011-07-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

I love this quote

2011-07-05T07:00:00.009-05:00

"If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today is your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run."

--John Bingham

My first week out I noticed a lot of really fit runners waving and giving me "atta girls." I'm sure my face was beat red and my pace was as fast as most people walk. But, they saw that I was trying. It was really encouraging. I love the sense of community I notice between the runners around here.

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T07:00:00.007-05:00

The United States of America is awesome! According to wikipedia...The United States is the only country with Chick Fil A! So there you go...

We love Chick Fil A!

Ever seen this video? I think it is pretty funny.
http://youtu.be/NsJHqstPuNo

I love that their nuggets are roughly 1 point a piece!

I love that they have family nights and give us something fun to look forward to like face painting.

DD2 loves them too. One night she kept eating and eating. She couldn't resist the nuggets. She is so my child. Shortly after this photo she threw up. Look how full her belly was! But look how big her smile was too!

I hope you all have a safe American holiday!

50 pound Weight Loss! Weight Watchers

2011-07-01T06:00:00.020-05:00

I'm so excited to have made the 50 pound goal this week at Weight Watchers.

Everyone likes Before and After Photos....

The before: Gah! I could have at least smiled.

After: Boom Boom Pow!

The other day DH grabbed my hand and said, "Your wrists are getting so skinny." Well....I'd rather hear that my waist was skinny but I'll take that compliment considering I can't ever remember anyone ever talking about me and skinny in the same breath.

I was at a party a couple of weeks ago and my cousin was looking at me funny and finally asked if I did something new with my hair. I said, "Yes I have highlights and have been letting it grow out." Later her mind snapped and realized that I had lost weight. She said, "April! It is not your hair, you've lost weight!" I confirmed that I had. Then she looked at the plate of cake in my hand and said, "Don't eat that cake!" But that's the beauty of WW, you can eat cake! Me and cake go way back! I can't quit you cake.

Here is my weight watcher key chain and charms. They give the keychain for losing 10%. The clapping hands with a 16 on it is for staying with the program for 16 weeks. I got this charm the first time I tried WW many years ago. My leader asked if I wanted another one but I declined. I like keeping the old one because it reminds me what happens when you quit. The 5K is for walking a 5K in May. The two washers represent 25 pounds lost and 50 pounds lost. I hope to get one more of those. Then all I need are the goal and lifetime charms.

My leader always wants us to give a little one or two lines statement about why we are successful when they recognize us. I always struggle with this because there is no one thing. So here is my gazillion pieces of advice of things that worked for me.

Follow the program....find out the points values with your food and then track and don't eat more than you are allowed. It is that simple!
How to stay motivated

One of the things I did in the beginning was that I started writing a private blog solely dedicated to my weight struggles. I wrote a list of reasons why I wanted to lose weight. The list was long, extremely personal, and sometimes just silly. But reviewing the list on those hard days was helpful. I also wrote out my goals. Sometimes I journaled daily what I was feeling. When I felt like binging or snacking...I'd write.
Buy new clothes, get a new hairstyle...make yourself look good in the mirror. In those early days when you've only lost 15-20 pounds and no one is noticing yet, you are going to have to be your own cheerleader. It helps if you feel good about yourself. I was cheap...I didn't want to buy new clothes when I had dropped a size because technically the older clothes fit good enough. But size does matter. A well fitting outfit can really accentuate what you've lost.

Exercise

You don't have to. That's right...you don't have to exercise to lose weight. I think like 80% of weight loss is from what you eat anyway. I didn't start a sustained exercise program until 1 month ago. In fact, the couple of times I did try to exercise my weight went up those weeks. What I did do however, was get active. Find ways to walk more. Wear a pedometer. Clean & Tidy your house all day long. Go run errands at lunch instead of just sitting there. It all adds up!
When you do decide to exercise, find something you want to do and personalize it. For me right now it is running. Or more appropriately. Slogging....SLOW jogging.

I went to a real running shoe store and had them fit me for shoes.
I bought new workout clothes that fit good and didn't ride up.
I bought new songs for my ipod and made awesome playlists that really got me pumped.
I figured out that I hate exercising inside. So even though it might feel like 100 degrees outside, I can last longer in the heat then I can on a treadmill.
C25K didn't work for me. I made up my own program to increase my endurance.
I run a different path every day. If your brain is working to remember where you are, you can't be thinking how much this sucks.
I like to run alone.
I also sing and dance a little bit with my arms when I run. It just makes it more fun. Remember that episode of Friends where Phoebe ran like a kid?

Sleep. I'm a mother of 2 small kids. I am sleep deprived. The weeks where I found time to squeeze in some extra sleep are the weeks where I had a little extra weight loss.
Food

I save 4 points every day for dessert. Skinny Cows & a small portion of chocolate are my favorites. I've been on a diet for 9 months and I have eaten dessert almost every single one of those days.
Weigh or measure everything. Everyone always tells me "well I really don't eat that much, I don't know why I can't loose weight. I think my body is in starvation mode. " Whatever...you are deceiving yourself! Once you start tracking and actually measuring out your portions...you will see really quickly how much you eat or you will learn that what you are eating is extremely high in fat and calories.
My favorite frozen dinners are Smart Ones traditional lasagna and Lean Cusine's baja quesadillas.
Keep ready to eat, washed, cut, etc fruit around you for snacking.
Bananas are my friend.
My favorite meals are grilled chicken in a tortilla with beans and cheese.
Most of the time (except for ice cream & lasagna) I'd rather have the regular version then the diet kind of food.
Don't drink your calories.
Some things are just not worth it. For me, it is milkshakes and cheesecake.
Typical Food day for me 5 days a week: Breakfast 1 egg with cheese + 1 bacon 5 points. Fruit 0 points. Lunch: Lean Cuisine 7pts . Snack: 3 point snack like crackers or chips, etc. Sometimes just fruit. Dinner: 7-10 points Tortilla, 3 oz Chicken, 2 T of low fat cheese, beans, lettuce. And a 4 point skinny cow ice cream. (I'm at the minimum points...when you start out you get way more food than this!)
2 days a week I splurge. I usually know what I want to do on those splurge days and I look forward to it all week. I usually do this on the weekends. I save all my extra weekly points and eat them on the weekends. We have a big breakfast. I go out to eat. etc. etc. But I track and I only eat the points I have.
Keep trigger foods out of the house!

The Scale

Every loss is a loss. Even a .2 loss is progress. Weight is not lost evenly. I've had weeks where I lost 4 pounds and others where I gained. Buy my overall average is around 1 pound per week.
I weigh myself every morning. It keeps me motivated. I do not get hung up on the number unless I see a definite trend in the wrong direction over several days.

Start now! You will never be as young as you are right this minute. But you can be healthier. Losing weight will never get any easier than it is right now.
Breastfeeding + weightwatchers = faster results...don't wait til you are almost weening like I did. Oh how I wish I was losing that fast again.
Vacation. When you go off track, make sure you start right then getting back on track. Don't wait a day, 2 days, till Monday, etc. Do it now. Even if you think you really screwed up start tracking your points again.
Alli-I do take Alli. TMI...it keeps me regular. LOL! I don't have any of the gross embarrassing side affects when I combine it with the WW program.
Sometimes it helps to plan your whole day in advance and put it in your tracker.
Go to meetings and use the etools. It is worth it.

I hope to have another post next week with my complete lifetime "Fat Story." Let's see how long it takes me to get it written and get out the scanner for the old pictures. ;)

Father's Day Weekend

2011-06-30T07:00:00.005-05:00

Since June is practically over I'd better put up my Father's day post already.

DD1 made a stepping stone for DH for Father's day. The box showed a pink heart...there was no pink glass anywhere in this kit. And there was no warning about contents not being as they appeared on the box. I was a little bit annoyed.

So the little girl that loves all things pink couldn't make a pink heart for her daddy. Surprisingly, she didn't seem to care. She wanted to make a blue butterfly instead. As we let it dry on the porch she wanted to stand guard because she thought someone might come and take it. So cute.

I also bought DH a new polo and a golf sized umbrella because ~~it was on clearance~~ I'm optimistic. It did rain later that week. Ole!

We also took our annual trip to the river with my Father's extended family. We are all registered Native Americans. We had lots of fun as usual. I'm looking forward to when DD2 can get in the river with us.

DD1 loves playing with her cousin. She loves him to death. Here she tries to smother him. Later she tries strangulation with a rope and then drowning. What can I say? Indians are mean!

Here is my dad playing with the girls.

On Saturday he gave a speech about how he didn't want us to spend money buying him cards. He's weird like that. Well, I had already bought his card. It said something like he was the best at teaching second hand swearing on the cover. Then on the inside it said "Happy @#$%ing Father's Day!" This makes a lot of sense to people who know our relationship.

Toddler Hair Tip

2011-06-29T10:48:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but I have a hard time catching my almost 14 month old long enough to put a pony and a bow in her hair. I have learned a little secret though.

Put her in the highchair with dry cereal and fix it there! Works every time. Also it helps to get it in quick and don't draw her attention to it. If she knows it is there she will try to yank it out.

That's what works for me!

This post is linked up to What Works for Me Wednesday at www.wearethatfamily.com.

STUFF Part 2

2011-06-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

I told you I was serious!

So most of this on the dining room table came out of the pantry. The pantry! How did it all even fit???

And I ended up keeping the avocado green crockpot. DH wanted it. I told him if we hadn't used it in 6 months it was G.O.N.E.! So we got it out last night and the thing quit working in the middle of cooking. Thankfully we were just warming up something and not actually waiting on our dinner to cook.

I should have taken a before picture...sorry...you just have to use your imagination. Here is the after picture.

And while I'm sharing I'd like to show you what my mother does when she comes to visit. She cuts the ends off of bags when the bread or chips gets low. We find it so annoying. Why does she do that? Does anyone else do that out there America? Anyone?

Also I cleaned out our guest room and got rid of all this stuff on the bed.

The hardest thing to let go of was all my craft stuff.

First was my hairbow making supplies. I'm talking spools and spools of unopened ribbon and other supplies. I used to find this really fun but now it seems more like a burden. I burned myself really badly several times on the craft knife and was always scared my kids would burn themselves if I did it while they were awake. Also DD1 is particular about her hair and she almost never lets me match the bows I made to her outfits anymore. My hobbies should provide me with fun not drag me down.

I have the same problem with my beads and jewelry making. I got really into making infant bracelets. This was an easy thing to sit on the couch and do when DD1 was a baby and going to bed at 7 every night. Now it just isn't possible. In fact, I forgot I even had all the stuff. If you forgot you had something you probably don't need it.

Also my scrapbooking supplies. Now this is one hobby that I never really liked that much...mostly I just liked shopping for it. (That seems to be the case for a lot of my hobbies, LOL!) So I plan to sell my bag with all the supplies inside. I confessed last night to DH that I probably had 100-150 in supplies in that bag and most of it was unused.
The number one thing I had to say to myself so I wouldn't feel so bad about getting rid of it was, "Does it take time away from my kids?" The answer was yes so off it went. I decided that I can get into crafts when the kids are out of the house and I'm lonely. Right now I want to give my time to these two! They are only little for a short while.

I'm also going to sell our karaoke machine...we never use it anymore. And also my spotbot. We hardly have any carpet and I like calling the shampooer guy to come clean the carpet we do have once a year anyway.

It feels so good to purge!

This stuck fear in my heart...

2011-06-27T12:30:00.003-05:00

"Momma, smell my finger."

You never want to hear a 4 year old say that...ever.

I told her I didn't want to.

"Pulllleeeeassseeeeee!"

"Why? What does it smell like?"

"It smells good."

I wasn't convinced. But, I realized she wasn't going anywhere till I smelled her finger.

I grabbed it and held it steady so that it would not actually touch my nose.

Sniff....nothing. No smell at all.

*****************************************************

Later that day she cracked me up.

I was cleaning out the junk drawer and I saw her grab some velcro object out of the corner of my eye.

"What's this?"

"I don't know." I mumbled and never looked up. When will I learn that this will not end the conversation???

"Is it a command adhesive strip?"

"What? Where did you learn that?"

"Commercial. They come in an array of colors and sizes." She just turned 4 mind you!

"Oh really. I think I let you watch too much T.V." She left the room when I said that.

STUFF

2011-06-24T07:00:00.001-05:00

I was blog hopping the last couple of weeks and somehow a fire has been lit under me to declutter…again.

First I watched the story of stuff on you tube at the recommendation of some blog somewhere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM

It is 21 minutes long so I skimmed of course. But basically I came away with,

• I have too much stuff.
• I buy too much stuff.
• People spend their free time either watching TV or shopping.
• Watching TV encourages us to buy more stuff to make ourselves happy.
• People’s happiness went down in the 1950s at the same time that people were encouraged to buy more stuff.
• Companies actually design things to break down so we have to buy more stuff.
• Stuff keeps us from having fun.
• All this stuff is bad for people and our planet.

Then I started reading…
http://orgjunkie.com/52-weeks

and I’m obsessed with reading…
http://www.declutterdaily.com/

and that blog led me to this post which says it all really…
http://smallnotebook.org/2011/06/16/the-jam-jars/

The wildfires last week had me thinking what I would grab if I had to evacuate. Then that led me think about all the junk that I would not care if it burnt up. If I don’t care about it, why do I have it?!
I’m digging deep this weekend.

POA (Plan OF ATTACK!)
 I’m getting the biggest box I can find and filling it up for goodwill.
 I may also fill up the back of DH’s truck.
 I’m going to consider the last time I used something…the next time I’ll probably use it…and could I replace it with something I like better if and when I need one again?
 If I had to start over tomorrow, what would be the necessities? (Certainly not that avocado green crock-pot that I made cheese dip in 3 years ago.)
 Anything worth more than $20 I’ll put to the side and try to sell it. (Do I really need a silver platter for a ham? Nope….normally we eat it right out of the pan on the stove.)

Watch out! Nothing is safe. I can’t wait to get started!

Day Trip to Brenham: Blue Bell, Southern Flyer Diner, & Aquatic Center

2011-06-23T07:00:00.004-05:00

So a couple of Fridays ago we took a day trip to Brenham. Mainly we wanted to tour the Blue Bell ice cream factory. That's been on my bucket list forever. Also we figured we could check out some other stuff along the way and make a day of it. Thanks to Facebook, my cousin gave me the tip about the Southern Flyer Diner and the Blue Bell Aquatic Center.

We took some pics while waiting for our tour to start.

They don't allow cameras on the tour for employee privacy reasons so there's nothing to show there. Honestly it was kind of lame. They didn't show the movie because they were extra busy and we really only got to look into two different areas where they were packaging ice cream. By the end we were all ready for our free ice cream!

Here's DD2 sampling homemade vanilla. She was very happy about that! Whenever I eat homemade vanilla it brings back a lot of memories at my Grandma's house. They always loved giving me ice cream (and Totinos pizza) and they called it brain food. When I graduated with my masters I wrote a special note and thanked them for all the years of brain food.

DD1 got pink (strawberry) of course. It could be dirt flavored for all she cared. As long as it was pink.

DH got some crazy colored cookie dough which surprised me. He usually doesn't go for stuff like that. He ended up liking mine better. I had strawberry cheesecake. It was delicious!!!! It was so creamy and fresh. Of course I've been living on diet ice cream for months so maybe that was why it tasted so good.

Next we went to the Southern Flyer Diner at the Brenham airport. It is 50s style and right on the airport runway so you can watch planes land. We didn't see any land that day.

Pre-dinner sillyness.

Our Waitress.

She brought us some yummy bacon cheeseburgers. They were humongous!

I had bought DD1's poodle skirt to wear but it was in the bag with the sunscreen. We had a whole spray can of sunscreen leak and ruined the skirt. Well....I tried!

I don't know what the deal was with the camera that day...all the pictures were too dark or too light but her is one on the runway.

Lastly we went to the bluebell aquatic center. Sorry, no good pictures there. I am too worried about having a good time and keeping the kids from drowning that I usually don't bother bringing a camera. Here's one I took as we drove away. Oh, and DH got to be a hero. There was a fire in a locker and he reported it. Someone put their lit cigar butt in there!

It is a cool place for kids. There is one waterslide for the big kids and a lot of play area with water spouts and mushrooms for the little kids too.

I like daytrippin. I hope to do more of it this summer. When we got home the kids were exhausted and both took long naps. That might have been my favorite part of the whole day!

Avoiding Wash, Rinse, and Repeat Prayers

2011-06-22T11:30:00.000-05:00

I've been focusing lately on not praying the same thing every single day. I get stuck in a rut praying for safety, blessing, and health. So lately I've been praying for the fruits of the spirit.

Do you know all the fruits? Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control. (Or "Self Contro-o-olll" if you just sang the song in your head.)

Some of these are no brainers right? Like Love. Surely I've got that one down. I mean I love the heck out of my kids, and my husband. But what about people in general? Do I love people?

Not really.

In fact a great deal of them irritate me, make my skin crawl, gross me out, tick me off, etc. I don't love man-kind. So I've been asking God to help me with that. There is someone in particular who comes to mind when I pray for a loving heart. Everything about her irritates me. She is my life's sandpaper. I don't want to be around her plain and simple. I could even act all self righteous and point out all her sins and act as if it is my right to avoid her. But that is not what Jesus would do.

And then there is patience. I do not have patience. I made the mistake of praying for patience when I was a teenager and God sent me my husband. Good one God....you are really funny. Moving on.

Self Control...man oh man do I need self control. The things that fly off my tongue sometimes. And what about healthy eating...I need some chocolate self control.

We have oodles of Joy in our family. DD1 was in Sherwin Williams with DH and she said "Daddy, I have a tube in my butt!" He thought she was referring to her natural parts and he did his best to change the subject. Little did he know she was walking around with a juice box straw stored in her crack. The clerk was laughing so hard he had to take a minute to compose himself before he could sell the paint! Well at least we've got Joy!

Tuesday Tips and Tricks and WFMW-Healthy Push Pops

2011-06-14T09:16:00.000-05:00

I've posted before about how I'm trying to sneak more fruits and veggies into DD1's diet.

At HEB the other day we found a 2 pack of push pop molds.

DD1 LOVES push pops. She calls them Sponge Bobs. Lately I've been making her shakes so I thought why not pour some of the shake in the mold and let her eat it that way too.

It's a success!

The shake recipe...errr...sort of.

I never do this the same way. I always have frozen fruit in my freezer. Whenever fresh fruit isn't fresh enough for eating I'll cut the bad spots off or pick the bad parts out, chop it up and freeze it. So far I've done this with bananas, blueberries, peaches, and strawberries. I store it all in one container and just scoop out what I need each time. Every time the ratio is different.

I also add pink sherbet and some milk. I've even used water instead of milk in a pinch.

Then I blend until "shake like". If it is too thick I'll add more milk. If it is too sour I add more sherbet. But really the amount of sherbet is really low compared to how much fruit is in it so it is really healthy and low sugar.

Oh, and I forgot...the secret ingredient. Baby spinach leaves. You can't even taste them! I always make sure she doesn't see this part. I pull the stems off and freeze the leaves whole.

And the other trick we've been doing lately is pureeing carrots into the spaghetti. She doesn't notice that either!

Poop Soup.

2011-06-13T07:31:00.002-05:00

I walked into the guest bath and in the toilet I saw what I can only name poop soup.

Then I noticed shreds of toilet paper around the floor.

Upon closer inspection I saw a drop of poop soup that had dried on the toilet seat.

Then I noticed that the toilet brush had been moved.

When I picked it up, I realized how she had stirred the poop soup.

There is no manual for this.

Touched by an Angel

2011-06-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

I believe in Angels.
One spoke to me as a child.

I half-joked about sighting one here.

6 months or so ago I felt one touch me. It was one of those evenings when DD2 wasn't acting right. I can't remember now if she had bumped her head or maybe she was running a fever. But in any case I remember standing over her bed watching her sleep when my mother came and stood next to me. She knew I was worried. She began to pray for DD2. When she was done I felt something brush my arm. Immediately the skeptic in me looked back to see if someone was there or check the fan to see if it was on. But my heart said that wasn't any brush of air and my eyes saw nothing next to my arm. My heart also said it felt like a brush of a feather and I envisioned an angel pitying me and letting me feel him to give me comfort.

I'll admit, it freaks me out a little when DD2 and I are in her room and she'll look to the ceiling and talk. Or when she will stare and laugh at nothing in the corner. What does she see that I can't? Now when I pray for DD2 at night and I leave the room I'll often say, "Ok Angels, your turn." As if I'm off duty and now they are in charge.

Her room is where I've also smelled the scent of roses where there shouldn't be any such odor.

I don't like to share a lot of my supernatural experiences because it leaves me so raw in front of people. I feel like they are thinking that I'm a holy rolling coo-koo. But last night I came across this verse and so I felt comfortable enough to blog about it.

Psalm 34:7. God's angel sets up a circle of protection around us while we pray. (The Message)

Writer's Block

2011-06-10T07:00:00.001-05:00

Look who wants to be a writer too!

The Longest Yard

2011-06-09T07:00:00.001-05:00

We started in March. We are 99% finished.

Here is the before. And now that I'm looking at it I can't believe we waited this long to redo the flowerbeds! That is so ugly!

The during. We decided to use cement blocks for our first layer since they were cheaper and wouldn't be seen.

We bought two pallats of rocks.

The after.

We plan to add a few low growing plants in the front at some point. But we want to keep it simple too!

I'm so glad this is finally over. You wouldn't think this would take as long as it did but with a busy schedule and two kids it seemed to drag on and on. Even our neighbors came over the help! THANK YOU!!!! I'm so glad this is 99% behind us.

13 Months...she's walking!

2011-06-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

Look who finally decided to walk!

At first she loved to crawl.

Then she loved her walker.

Then one day she let go!

Sheer Determination.

"Wow I'm doing this!"

Whoa...steady now.

Going

Gone!

This is her "Mommy just told me No!" face.

It is immediately followed by this face.

But eventually she gets over it and we return to the cuteness.

She is talking so much these days it is ridiculous. She even talks in sentences! She says Cup, There, I got you, Daddy I see you, and yeah. There are other things that I can't even remember now.

She also gives high fives....

Plays a mean game of peek-a-boo....

And gives the cutest kisses. Her version of the "muah" smacking noise is blowing on her lips and making a "ppppffffttt" noise.

Patience

2011-06-07T07:30:00.001-05:00

I heard this verse a few years ago and then couldn't find it when I needed to. It came up again in Sunday's message so I was thrilled.

But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day. Hab. 2:3 (LB)

I especially love the last line. I often think I know better than God and that he needs to hurry up or I'm going to miss an opportunity, etc. But his timing is absolutely perfect!

Jury Duty

2011-06-06T12:28:00.001-05:00

I spent 2 days in Jury Duty last week

I know how to cook crack rock in the microwave now.
I know how to easily transport drugs in my vehicle now.

(Tutorials for both coming soon.)

I know what apartment in south Houston to buy from.
I will be setting up my home business later. I'm going to use my $46 jury pay to score my first round. I figure there is a 50/50 chance that I'll get caught and go to prison for it anyway because...
Apparently there are lots of people in this county who think we should give up fighting against drugs. Most of those people were eliminated from the jury pool but a few snuck in. We had people on our panel that think it is no biggie to live in a house with 1000 dollars worth of crack rock and cocaine powder (thats about 30 "white man" crack rocks and 5 grams of cocaine).
1 gram is about the same as 1 sweet n low packet.
A "black man's" crack rock is equal to 4 "white man's" crack rocks before it is cut. (My 5th grade teacher was right. You really do learn something new every day.)
Someone actually had to ask if marijuana is a controlled substance. I asked them if they were born yesterday.
Lawyers and the Police treat you like a VIP when your jury badge is on. Other people not so much...I had my life threatened in the hallway.
Being a juror isn't fun.

Two houses down from us was robbed at 12:30 in the afternoon. The owners were home. Also my mom had her keys stolen during a garage sale she was helping with at a family member's home. I am SO over the suburbs. God get me out of here.

Memorial Day Weekend!-The quickest 4 days off ever.

2011-05-31T07:00:00.000-05:00

Friday was my last day off until August to be completely by myself. I took advantage and went to the movies to see Bridesmaids. I went to Target first ~~to get some popcorn and a coke to sneak in~~ because I had extra time. Man something stank in there. It was horrible. I kept walking faster thinking I could outrun it but no such luck. I saw about 5 managers, a maintenance man, and a security guard scrambling to do something. They had bottles of bleach and vinegar. Then I heard one of them say that someone must have broken a bottle of baby food. Honey, if you are feeding something that stinky to a baby, I'm calling CPS. I never did figure out what it was but let me tell you it was like a rotting trash can in an all girls dorm. Get the idea?
So anyway, Bridesmaids was funny. I think that I thought it was going to be funnier because so many people kept saying it was good. I wish I had watched it with no expectations.

After that I went shopping on Market Street. I got me some running shoes and a pair of running shorts from Luke's Locker. Oh yeah, I walked a 5K a week ago and now I'm inspired to actually run one. So, I've decided to start training on the cusp of a Texas summer. It is a brilliant plan (insert sarcasm here).

Anyway, then I went to Bath and Body Works and bought some Dark Kiss shower gel. I love that smell!

Then I experienced Charming Charlies for the first time. It was so beautiful in there. I didn't buy anything but I could totally live there. I can't wait to go back when I actually need some accessories. I also understand how DH feels when he walks into a gun store and he was happy that I could understand him a little better. But then I had to explain that I can get something at Charming Charlies for 14.99 and he can't get a Gun for that and that his hobbies are too darn expensive.

Then we went out to eat at Wacky Mongolian Grill and I made a bad choice (as DD1's preschool teacher would say). I decided to stop tracking points for the holiday weekend. And here I am 3 days later and 3 pounds heavier. When will I learn?

Oh, also we rented Hereafter. It was a pretty good movie but I was preoccupied with an anonymous neighbor telling me I should be ashamed of myself via a website. OK so I had typed 500 words explaining the situation but then I deleted it because I've really just got to let it go. Breathe in...breathe out...

Saturday DH worked on our flowerbeds again. We've been dealing with them forever. I think we finally have all the rocks in place and he got one truckload of dirt. Then I had to leave to go to a hair appt so he had to quit and watch kids. I can't wait until that project is actually done and I can post pictures.

Saturday night we went to our cooking class at Hubble & Hudson that I bought DH for our anniversary. He loved it. We had a great time. Our instructor was a bit of jerk at times...maybe he wants to be like Chef Ramsey. The food was great too!

I shaped the crab cakes.

They were delicious with a chipotle tar-tar sauce.

Our salad with fresh vinaigrette.

DH grilling the veal chops. See those girls in the background? Those were our partners plus their mother. They looked so familiar to me but I can't place them. It is driving me nuts!!!

Veal chops with radishes and carrots.

Me mixing up the chocolate cherry cookies. I must be the only person who loves to bake but hates stand mixers.

Since MeMaw was babysitting we decided to catch a movie after the class. We saw Hangover II. I thought it was as good as the first. I also want to see this movie because the preview cracked me and DH up.

Sunday was church of course. Then we hung out at the pool and ate pizza for dinner.

Monday we started a new family Memorial Day tradition. We watched old home movies. Also we grilled hot dogs and played in the back yard. It was a very American way to spend Memorial Day. Thank you to those who have served or are serving and to the families of those who have lost loved ones. My cousin William is currently serving in Afghanistan. Go Will!

When anyone would come near her popcicle she would hide it behind her back. So funny!

Praying to Santa-Christ

2011-05-23T07:00:00.003-05:00

Saturday night we went out to eat and they sat us in the kids banquet room where the video games are. DD1 likes to play the games...we don't often put money in...she thinks she is doing it based on the video loop the game plays.

That little trick didn't work on the pinball machine. So she started asking for money. Finally, I was fed up with saying no, not until after dinner and told her just to pray for it to work without money.

DH shot me a look...."You shouldn't tell her to pray for stuff like that."

Guess what happened next? She played no less than 3 games for FREE! I guess somebody had won a lot of credits and they were left on the machine.

Only the faith of a child....

So Sunday we are at HEB and she sees some Barbie mermaid toys. I tell her to put them back and she says maybe Santa will bring them to her. But the kid has got this figured out. Because she stopped right there in the middle of HEB and prayed for Jesus to bring them to her instead.

Presenting...Family of Four

2011-05-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

You would think it would have hit me in the delivery room...

or when I request a table at a restaurant...

or when I buy food for our family...

or when I do countless other things.

But I don't think the realization of having a family of four has really hit me until I see pictures like this,

and this...

and this.

Presenting a family of four. I like how it looks.

PS. I held a 5 week old baby boy this weekend and felt nothing. No baby fever at all.

Why I love this man!

2011-05-19T17:06:00.000-05:00

Him: How's your day going?

Me: Honey I have been chasing my tail all day! There is a tree's worth of paper in my recycle bin because I've had to redo this stuff 4 times!

Him: I wish I could get paid to chase your tail all day.

Wah Wah Wahhhhh

Dinner Time Rules

2011-05-18T07:00:00.006-05:00

I've mentioned before that DD1 is not a good eater. Last night we instituted some rules for dinner. Some were suggested by our pediatrician and some were attained from google research and common sense.

1) TV is off during dinner. TV will not be turned back on until everyone finished dinner.
2) Phone calls are not answered during dinner.
3) No one eats until everyone is at the table and we've said grace.
4) A timer will be set on the table for 30 minutes. If DD1 has not had one bite of everything on her plate in 30 minutes she will go straight to bath and then bed with no story. The pediatrician looked her in the eyes at our last visit and told her this is what 4 year olds do.

Oh the tears...and the hyperventilating cries...it was breaking my heart. But guess what. At about 22 minutes in, DD1 ate a bite of her refried beans. Her tongue did not fall off. She didn't gag. She still claims she doesn't like them but at least she tried it. I've read it can take up to 15 exposures to a food before a kid will like it. And in general she ate more dinner than she normally would with TV distracting her from the table. Also her hatred for refried beans caused her to eat more corn than she normally has lately. She used to love corn but suddenly she started saying she didn't like it. But miraculously it was delicious when paired with something she "hated."

I was having flashbacks y'all. It was probably 1989 and there were home grown tomatoes and peas. My dad was so proud of his homegrown vegetables. All I wanted was to eat a boxed pizza once in a while. I wanted to eat beef instead of fish, venison, duck, and goose. I used to throw the peas to the back of my throat and wash it down with sweet tea. Gallons of sweet tea. And then there was the time my dad force fed me tomatoes. I cannot eat a raw tomato to this day without gagging.

I like rule #4....it leaves her with a choice. She can eat one tiny little bite or go to bed. There is no forcing food. I have a feeling we've got quite a few nights of crying ahead of us as she goes through the growing pains on this.

I also like how we all ate together. Normally by the time I finish making plates for the kids, DD1 is done and left the table when I sit down to eat mine.

Also I would like to point out that we are not members of the clean your plate club. I have a lifetime membership and I am trying to get out.

Our Anniversary Dinner

2011-05-17T17:30:00.016-05:00

For our 10 year anniversary we went to Americas. I wanted to do something a littler nicer than we normally do. And since we had a babysitter I wanted to do something that I could never take the kids too.

When we walked in were in the bar area. It was really swanky. DH was out of his country boy element and a little worried. When they put fried plantain chips and chimichurri sauce on our table he was happy again.

pictures from yelp.com

Our dinner was delicious. I had the Tallarines. It was grilled shrimp & smoked crab on top of a fettuccine with lobster sauce. It wasn't really fettuccine...it was more like strips of peppers, onions, and soft corn tortillas made to look like fettuccine in a cream sauce. Since it was just a few corn strips and mostly peppers and onions it was very low points except for the cream sauce. I think I'm going to try to come up with a similar dish to do at home.

DH had the Paella since after watching a throw down with Bobby Flay he'd always wanted to try it.

They also serve complimentary rice with grilled vegetables.

For dessert we had the Delirio De Chocolate. That was chocolate truffle cake, chocolate mousse, chocolate ganache. Oh I love me some chocolate ganache. Even DH, who usually hates my obsession for the perfect chocolate dessert, really enjoyed it.

DH already gave me my anniversary present back in November. He upgraded my wedding ring. For his present I bought us cooking lessons at Hubble and Hudson. It is called a "Date Night in the City" and the menu is all the top foods from several New York restaurants. He is very excited to do it. He loves cooking.

After dinner we walked on the waterway a bit. We really didn't want to go home until the kids were asleep but we really didn't want to go to a movie either. DH has been needing his watch replaced so we went to Kohls.

So on our anniversary date we went to Kohls. There, I admit it...we are the most boring people in the world.

Anyway, we bought DH a new watch...I bought some costume jewelry and bought DD1 a couple of new outfits...skirts of course.

When we got home we expected to just slide into bed but DD1 was still awake...Thanks MeMaw...and she had eaten candy for dinner. THANKS MEMAW. But I guess that is what grandmas do right?

My weekend fantastica!

2011-05-16T12:00:00.002-05:00

This weekend was one of those weekends where you come back to reality and can't work. You start daydreaming about being independently wealthy and never having to work so you could just continue to live like you did this weekend. Or maybe you get on the real estate sites and start looking in buying your own beach house so you can do this every weekend. Or maybe you even start looking for the next rental you want to get for your next vacation. Yep, that kind of weekend.

This weekend was the perfect ending to 4 straight weekends of chaos. The perfect mix of relaxation and good times with friends.

We ate...boy did I eat. My weigh in tomorrow will be sad.

Some of us wore speedos. (The production crew at memorylanememoirs want to keep this a PG family friendly website so we won't post any of the embarassing photos here. But I'm holding on to them for future blackmailing.)

We laughed. We played. We lost kites. We found prized sea shells. We told old stories and have new ones to tell in the future.

Here are some of my favorite pics from the weekend.

This is most of the gang. One family left early in the morning. Bette Midler and her boyfriend had to leave the night before. Her poor boyfriend's foot swole up and he had to go to the hospital! Meanwhile his mother fell and broke her shoulder. Good gracious what a weekend for that family. The other family that left early that morning also had one of their kids get stung by a jelly fish.

All the ladies

My family

The house we rented

The morning walk I made DD1 go on.

Poor dead crab. Death by kids.

My footprints next to DD1's.

Man and The Moon. It was almost full and so bright and beautiful on the water.

DD2 had a lot of fun too!

I love how this has a halo affect. My little angel.

She was soooo cold but loved it anyway.

Definitely one of the best weekends of the year. Now I can't wait for our family reunion at the river!

Happy Anniversary!

2011-05-12T14:38:00.000-05:00

10 years ago today I walked down the isle of a tiny 98 year old church and married the love of my life.

I had planned to blog about the wedding. I had planned to scan and post old pictures.

My wonderful life got in the way. So, I am planning to do that some day in the future.

For now I'll just say Thank You Honey for 10 years of marriage, 2 kids, 1 dog, 2 1 cats. Thank You for a lovely home and a wonderful life. Thank you for bathing the kids and leaving the bathroom sopping wet. Thank you for cooking dinner and leaving crumbs on the floor. Thank you for going shopping and forgetting the thing I sent you to the store for. Thank you for every single thing, annoying or endearing, about our lives together. I love you.

Thank you God for hearing the prayers of a 17 year old girl and sending this man to me.

Meal Planning...Ugh. A dozen light quick meals!

2011-05-11T07:00:00.003-05:00

So it is 6 o'clock. I'm tired from a long day at work. I walk in the door and the kids cling to me. They are hungry, tired, and wanting my attention. They need to eat, bathe, and go to bed in less than 2 hours. DH has been home for an hour yet nothing is cooked. What do you do?

You realize you've got to go back to meal planning and having everything laid out for DH to handle when he gets home...that's what you do. I hate meal planning. Therefore, any night of the week we are grabbing fast food or eating the same leftovers for the 4th night in a row. I decided I needed to make a list of balanced, semi-weight watchers friendly, kid & family approved meals that I could make blindfolded with one hand behind my back. I'm lucky that DH likes to grill so I rely heavily on him. He has grilled on frozen days, in the dark, etc. He loves it.

So here's my list.
1) Spaghetti. Requires jarred sauce, noodles, and ground beef. Serve with salad (watch the fatty toppings!) or another vegetable. Occasionally I'll skip the noodles and eat my sauce with a slice of garlic bread. The kids love the bread too.

We have a trick with ground beef in our house. DH hunts deer. So most of the deer meat is ground up and then cut half and half with beef. This makes the end product leaner and makes the venison more palatable. Since we are grinding and mixing anyway, DH will usually brown about 10 pounds at once then freeze it in quart sized bags. When you are ready to cook, we just defrost and dump it in the pan with the sauce (or whatever recipe requires ground beef). Voila! Instant dinner.

2) Breakfast for dinner. Some version of this: eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, biscuits, fruit, yogurt, etc.

3) Tacos. Requires packet of taco seasoning, ground beef, tortillas or crispy taco shells, shredded cheese, lettuce, etc. I also like to keep cans of refried beans, pintos, or black beans around. Fresh Cilantro and jalapenos can make it even better.

4) Rotisserie Chicken (from store) or Beer Can Chicken. So this one requires DH to grill a Beer Can Chicken (A can of beer shoved up a chicken and grilled standing up on a pit) or we have to pick up a Rotisserie Chicken from the store. Serve with Mac & Cheese for the kids and other side veggies too.

5) Grilled Chicken. Arbor Mist Exotic Fruits Wine and KC masterpiece Teriyaki Sauce makes a great marinade for chicken. If we don't have Teriyaki Sauce then DH will mix brown Sugar, pineapple juice, soy sauce,Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, honey, S&P. Careful not to use too much pineapple juice...it makes the chicken get mushy. The grilled chicken can then be used for any number of things. Grilled Chicken Salad, Chicken Quesadillas, Soft Chicken Tacos, etc. Just get creative.

6) Grilled Shrimp. Buy bigger shrimp so it will be faster to peel....grill on a skewer with pineapple, sliced bellpepper, onions and mushrooms. Eat as a meal or add some sides. I can't remember if I blogged this before but at DD's 10 month appointment the doctor reminded us to not feed her eggs or shrimp yet. When I told her I already did she said, "Y'all from Louisiana?" Well, my husband is!

7) Sandwiches. Use lunchmeat, PB&J, leftover chicken, grilled cheese - whatever. Let everyone do their favorite. Serve with sides of fruit or veggies. Or serve with DD1's favorite...low fat strawberry smoothies with some baby spinach tossed in when she is not looking.

8) Steak. In just a few minutes DH can grill up a steak. Speed the process up by marinading earlier in the day. Regular steak can be served with potatoes, green beans, etc. Or use a skirt steak and go Mexican by making fajitas. I love these with carmelized onions.

9) Grilled Chicken Legs & Thighs in hot & Spicy Glaze. Here is what DH uses to make this glaze: Garlic, Salt & Pepper, Cumin, Brown Sugar, Molasses, Green Onion, Real Chili, Green Jalapeño, Habanero, Red Jalapeño,& Wax Pepper. Most of the time he can't find all those so he just improvises. Make it as hot or as mild as you like. Can you tell we like spice? This is my answer to General TSO chicken for way less points.

10) Hot Dogs! Get the low fat dogs and buns.

11) Chili Rubbed Pork Chops. This is an actual Weight Watchers recipe I got years ago. Goes great with Ranch Style Beans. Mix 1 tsp of each (chili powder, brown sugar, cumin, cinnamon, salt, & pepper.) Then rub on pork chop and cook as usual.

12) Hamburgers. OK, in order for this to be on my diet I have to exercise portion control. So my patty is usually really small and I usually just use 1 slice of white bread instead of a bun. Or get fancy and call it a slider.

What's your favorite quick and light meals?

(I have a whole other list of easy foods too but they rely heavily on cheese and starches. Those are not friends of my weight watchers diet. If I'm going to spend major points I'm going to do it at a nice restaurant where they know how to really make it goooooood!)

Here is a list of vegetables and fruit that my picky eater DD1 will eat.

Applesauce,
Blueberries,
Strawberries,
Raspberries
Bananas
Pineapple
Canned Peaches
Sweet Potatoes
Corn
Grapes

I'm going to work on some deceptive ways to get her to eat more veggies...especially green ones. I've got a cookbook called Deceptively Delicious. I'll let you know my successes.

Mother's Day

2011-05-09T07:29:00.001-05:00

I have a lot of blogging to do this morning. Don't miss my other two posts.

So yesterday was Mother's day.

I am severely loved.

My haul. A corsage from my mother in law. A silk plant & a card from my mother. Three handmade cards and a rose from my kids. A dozen roses, chocolate strawberries, and my favorite organic bubble bath (that doesn't leave a ring in a jacuzzi tub hallelujah!) from my husband.

Saturday night we went to the Mother's day service at church and also dedicated DD2 during the baby dedication. My mother and my in-laws came to see.

(In case you are curious. A baby dedication in my church is just when the pastor and the entire church prays for your baby to be protected and accept Christ at an early age. Also, as parents, we promise to uphold Christ-like lifestyles, pray for our children, and encourage our Children's gifts. We don't sprinkle or whatever because we believe they are not of an age to know what they are doing and we believe that waiting on those things doesn't keep them from heaven if anything should happen to them before they are old enough to accept Christ on their own. Later they will accept Christ and be baptised when they understand what they are agreeing to. Baptism is just an outward display of what you have already believed in your heart.)

Afterward there was a sermon relating to Mothers. One of the things the pastor's wife mentioned was that in watching 20+ years of home movies, the best movies were of the everyday things...rather than the big milestones. Being a blogger I can understand that. There are so many things that I've already forgotten but being able to go back and read about the mundane things has been such a blessing.

That night DH took this picture so I could remember this Mother's day.

On Sunday...because I am such an awesome Mom...I took my kids to eat Pizza! Then we went to Goodwill...for the fun of it....I bought nothing for myself of course...only a minnie mouse costume for DD2 and stickers for DD1.

Then we went home and watched two movies while the kiddos napped. First "The Switch" with Justin Bateman and Jennifer Aniston. And then "Life as we Know It" with Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. "The Switch" is one of those movies that you know is going to end ok...but the entire time you sit there wishing they would just tell already. And then "Life as we Know it" was a kick in the pants because no mother wants to think about dying and leaving their children orphaned. If I had written that movie I would have put the parents in a coma and had them wake up a year later. That would have been much nicer. But that wasn't the point of the movie...it was just something that needed to happen in order to set the movie up for the real story line.

Anyway, it was a great Mother's day. Thank you sweeties!

And then you were 4

2011-05-09T07:00:00.004-05:00

Dear Firstborn Daughter,

The past week has been a blur of celebrations. First a party for you and your friends. Then your sister turned 1. Then you had your school celebration. Then you turned 4 and we ate cake at home. Then it was Mother's day.

I hope you know how much we love you. Before you were conceived I was just a woman. But you made me a mother.

You love princesses, fairies, unicorns, and mermaids. You never stop moving. You like rollerskating, soccer, and being outside. You love to wear skirts that twirl. You like nail polish, makeup, and jewelry. You like to wear your hair down or in pig tails-anything else requires intense bargaining. You love playdough, painting, and stickers. You love your little sister completely.

This year for your birthday you begged for Tangled toys, a hula hoop, & roller skates.

You hate going to Academy and Lowes as much as I do.

You make me laugh constantly. You thought Kate was Barbie and Prince William was The Nutcracker. You remember everything and are really smart. You are also very helpful. You like to help me clean as long as you get to use the spray bottle.

You recently drew your first real picture. It was of a yellow mermaid that you named Lemonga (Lee-moan-ja).

You wowed us recently by singing word for word "I Will Follow." You told us you learned it in your room at night from your radio.

You don't eat....like ever. Last night your tummy hurt and then your head hurt but you wouldn't admit that you were hungry. We finally sat your down and forced you to eat a 1/2 cup of macaroni and cheese. You got this trait from your father. When you do eat, your favorite things are candy, ice cream, and bread. You get your favorite foods from me.

You have started to tell real lies-which is a normal part of your development at your age. And I'm sorry to say this my dear but I'm praying for you to constantly get caught.

This next year I will watch you go to Pre-K. I will watch your hair SLOWLY get longer. I'll see your interests change and your personality develop. I can't wait to see it.

We are proud of you and love you so much!

Mommy & Daddy

P.S. I apologize in advance for the 4 shots you are going to get Friday.

Real Birthdays

2011-05-09T07:00:00.001-05:00

On DD2's real birthday we got the cake she barely touched back out and sang to her again. Then I got some cake eating pictures that I really wanted to get. While some Moms might worry about giving their kids a real cake (with eggs and sugar, etc) on their 1st birthday, I just let her eat cake for dinner.

Friday was the last school day before DD1's birthday on Saturday so I sent ice cream cups and bubbles to school. Then on her real birthday MeMaw bought her a cake and we sang to her again.

You know you have done enough celebrating when you tell your kid it is their real birthday and they reply, "Again?" and roll their eyes. Seriously!