Empty Head, Full Heart

I know I am modifying the tag line from Friday Night Lights, but this is the best way to summarize what is going on in our world right now.  This week was the finale to a very very very long journey for my husband...he was offered a job as a firefighter yesterday!!!  Can I get an AMEN, a WHAT-WHAT, a YEEHAW, and a PRAISE THE LORD?!?

Forgive me as I rehash this, but I am feeling the need.  When I was 7 months pregnant Rob came home without a job.  He was a financial analyst, and when the market tanked-so did the need for his job.  We know the layoff was coming, but it still hurt on so many levels when it actually happened.  Rob is a man with a plan, so when he came to me with a plan that started off with "Please hear me through, I need to say this," I knew I needed to listen.  I knew he was unhappy with his career.  His frustration level was at an all time high in fact, but like so many of us he felt stuck by finances and lack of options.  So when we were dealt the unemployment card, Rob took advantage of the opportunity.  He told me that he wanted to work toward the goal of being a firefighter/paramedic, and I knew in my heart that is what he always wanted to do.  The tricky thing with this goal is that it is not like a college degree in that if you work really hard and apply yourself you will complete your goal in X amount of time and get a piece of paper to congratulate yourself on the accomplishment.  This goal was going to be a year of putting himself through  fire school and paramedic school without the guarantee of a fire job-ever.  In fact the chance of it not working out was far greater than it ever actually working out.  He was jumping in feet first without the guarantee of ever swimming.

I knew that many people applied to be firefighters, but I had NO IDEA how many actually applied.  For example, Rob tested for the City of Fort Worth.  2,700 people took the test.  They only hired 3 people.   Needless to say, Robs 96% on the test still put him 317 on the list, after the tiebreaker lottery system was applied, and he still did not come close.  Rob tested for the City of Irving and over 800 applicants tested, and after the written/physical/polygraph he was ranked #11.  That is in the top 1%, and the unfortunate thing is it still was not good enough.  They were only hiring 3.  Close but not close enough.

After 2 years of this, I was having a hard time encouraging him to get back up on that horse and keep trying.  To be honest, I was getting weary.  At what point do you start to nudge your husband toward a new goal?  I wasn't to that point yet, but everyday pushed me closer and closer.  He was hired on last January as a paramedic which I know he enjoyed, but being a LPC was never the final goal.  That job gave him the burst of energy he needed to carry on.  He had no idea how much he would actually like working in that kind of stress.  I never once heard him complain about his job.  He may have mentioned the audacity of what people do to themselves, but he still enjoyed the actual task of helping them.

Now that I have made this incredibly long winded I will try to wrap this up.  The Deputy Chief called him a month ago and invited him to the Battalion Chiefs interview, then the polygraph test, then the psychological evel, and finally the medical evaluation (all of this after already having done the written, physical test, and panel interview).  They made his official start date January 2nd.  It almost doesn't seem real.

Rob is walking a little taller today.  Not just figuratively-he has a spring in his step, and I am sitting here crying crocodile tears as I am writing this.  He has worked so hard-so very very hard for this.  I would have given up by now.  I am so very happy I married such a persistent man.  One day if our sons are ever floundering about a goal, I know that Rob will be able to speak to them from a position of understanding. While E is too small to remember this and Andrew will only ever know his father as a firefighter, I hope that one day they will grasp what their father was able to do when he was 30.  He convinced his wife that he needed to pursue his passion and the darn plan actually worked!!!

I AM SO HAPPY!

On a side note, I wrapped up my chemistry class and took my exam for work that I had to pass in order to keep my new job.  I completed them both with flying colors which explains why my brain is empty.  I am one emotionally and mentally drained mama.  Happy but drained.

I'm Thankful

I am thankful for so many things these days.  I could make a very long list, but I will keep it short mainly because my brain is soooooooo very tired.

1.  My happy healthy boy.  E makes my heart smile.
2.  My happy healthy baby growing inside of me.  He too makes me smile from my heart.
3.  My husband.  Not only does he make my heart smile, he makes me laugh.  He makes me laugh REALLY hard.  I like that our marriage has a lot of laughter.  I think it is important.
4.  My family and friends.  My circle of family and friends is a small one, but a tight one at that.  Growing up, I had a very large circles of people around me, and now as an adult I value having fewer people in my life.  But those people that are in my life really know me and I know them.  I would do anything for them and they for me.  I'm thankful for small-tight circles!
5.  My new job.  My new job makes my brain feel like it could explode with all the information I need to learn daily, but that is a good feeling.  I don't like to be bored, and bored I am not!
6.  I have 3 weeks left of chemistry.  I have to toot my own horn here-I have a perfect score in the class right now.  I was dubbed the "smart mom," which makes me laugh.  I was not a good chemistry student 13 years ago the first time I took it (ask Andrea-she was my lab partner).  I hung for dear life in that class and barely made a C.  I think having so many things going on, it makes me focus and makes the class worth while.  Every class is a sacrifice to be there, so it makes it easy to apply myself because of what I am giving up to be there (time with my boys).  I have 1 test and one final left...I am thankful I am almost done.  I am ready to just focus on learning my new job and finishing out this pregnancy!

Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to these days.

 E sporting his new track suit.  He thought he was pretty cool.  He told me he looked "addsom" or handsome.

 Making cookies-this boy loves being in the kitchen, much like his dad.

E's room is all but done.  I just have to hang a few things on the wall before I post the final pictures up. Here it is with the gray primer over the wainscoting.

Happy late Thanksgiving-I hope it was a blessed one for you!

Changes

This week marks the start of many new changes going on in our family.  All good changes.  I am going into my last week with my current company that I have been with the past year.  I was offered a job with a company that I would be a fool not to go work for.  It is back in the spine/neuro world, and I am a total geek for the spine stuff.  I wasn't looking for a job, but the job found me-so who am I to say no?!?  It will be in FW only (NO TRAVEL)-HALLELUJAH!!!!

I remember running through all of the airports on a weekly basis when E was just months old with my red cooler in hand, toting around my milk I had just pumped, and having many curious people ask what on earth was in the cooler.  I normally travel in scrubs for simplicity sake, and it is only normal for a person to think that I was carrying an organ or something.  (I don't know why they would think I would be on a commercial flight for that, but I can still see how they would connect the dots.)  Here is how the conversation would normally go with another passenger (normally a male passenger no less):

Stranger:  What is in your cooler?

Me:  A brain.

Stranger:  Really?

Me:  No. (Long Pause) But I don't think you want to know.

Stranger:  I really think I do, what is in there?

Me:  Breast Milk.  I am a working mom that has a baby back in FW waiting for me.

Stranger:  Oh.  (Total look of awkwardness and grossness on their face.)  I think I liked the idea of a brain more.

Me:  You can't say I didn't warn you.  :)

My new schedule will be incredibly busy, and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.  I feel blessed that Rob is totally supportive of this, and he knows that this new job means that he will have to be more flexible with his schedule as I figure mine out.  (FYI:  This news was one of the good phone calls I got a few weeks back.)

The next change going on in our house is our next home project that hopefully will be complete by this weekend.  E will be moving up to his new room.  I am that mom that has kept her kid in his crib far longer than I should have.  E loves his crib, and he doesn't climb out-so my thought thus far has been to leave well enough alone.  He sleeps all night in that crib, and my fear is that he will turn into a horrid sleeper when we transition him up.  With that said, he is way to big for it, and sadly it is time for him to move to his big boy room.

We have always affectionately called this room the "bug room."  When you reach the top of the stairs there is a cute little lady bug painted on the door, and you can see the hand paintings along the wall.  It is a darling room, but definitely painted for a little girl.  I have envisioned a "camping theme" for E's new room.  Picture "old school boy scouts" mixed with "air stream campers."  I have been collecting numerous items over the past few month, and I really hope that it all looks like it is supposed to after we are done.

The visions in my head are always grander than my budget and my decorating skills, but I am excited to get my hands on this room.  I will post the after pictures in the next week or so when it is all done!

Here are the before:

I lost my brain

I think this second pregnancy has stolen more of my brain that my first ever did.  For starters I had 3 moments yesterday that made us laugh out loud.  I know that I have air head moments all the time, but these were particularly bad ones considering that they all took place within 30 minutes of each other.

1.  We were driving in the car when I saw a man dressed as a pirate.  I made the comment that it was weird that a grown man was dressed as a pirate in broad daylight.  Rob looked at me waiting for it to dawn on me that it was Halloween, and when that moment didn't come-he smiled and said, "It's Halloween."  We both laughed and moved on.

2.  Not even 12 minutes later we were driving through on a busy road that has huge houses sitting up on a ridge, and when I looked up at one of them I saw a body hanging from a tree (it looked real).  I gasped loudly, but fortunately that time I remembered that it was STILL halloween.  Rob just laughed knowing that I had already forgotten what we had just talked about.

3.  5 minutes later I looked out the window and saw a woman walking in the "museum district" of FW dressed as a wench.  I made the comment that she must be in a play or something because she was dressed awfully weird.  Rob started to laugh to the point of tears because he had to tell me AGAIN that it was halloween.

I think I have lost my short term memory, and my long term memory at that.  Hopefully it will return once our little man arrives.

On a different note, Rob took E trick or treating last night and he looked so stinking cute!  I had to miss it because of class (BOOOOOO!), but I am glad that the boys got an evening together.

I had to include this picture of my boy on the way out the door to school.  Bad lighting, but he was so happy I had to capture it!

Good Luck

Two days ago I was pooped on by a bird walking out of E's school.  It landed on my head, and it was really gross.  It was in front of the playground with all the teachers and kids watching.  It was one of those moments where you want to totally gross out, but you don't want to be a crazy example to all the little eyes and ears that are so intently watching and listening.  What was really funny is E pointed out all of the birds flying overhead before the poop came flying.  E saw the poop land on my head, he announced "Mommy-Poop-Head-Yucky!"  He then proceeded to laugh to the point of snorting and hiccups.  I love that he snorts when he laughs.

While I was totally disgusted, I couldn't help but laugh to the point of tears while driving home with my little man.  The rest of the night he kept talking about what had happened and insisted on inspecting my hair long after the mess was cleaned up.  When we walked in the door and I was laughing/lamenting over what happened, Rob reminded me that getting pooped on is a sign that good luck is coming my way.  While I don't necessarily believe in actual "luck," we did receive two calls the very next day with good news.  (More to come on the good news thing...)

So I was reminded that sometimes getting pooped on (literally and figuratively) isn't always a bad thing.  My son thought I was the funniest person alive, and I certainly can't complain about that.

We are Having a.......

BOY

We had the ultrasound, and there is no mistaking that we are having another boy!  I am absolutely thrilled that E will have a little brother to rumble around with.  I have always felt that I would be a "boy mom," and it appears that my feeling was right.

I thought for a bit that we might be having a girl, mainly because I thought it would be fun to do all the girl things with one.  But now that I know that our little Andrew is happy and healthy, I couldn't be happier.  

Rob made a special point to recognize that I will be the only girl in the house, and he realizes that it might be tough having to balance all of the testosterone.  He promised that my girliness will not be lost or forgotten in all of the "blue" we will have going on.  That made me happy.

So we are having a little boy, and we are naming him Andrew!  Hooray!

The Results are In...

Last night I decided to test out all of the "Old Wives Tales" of the gender prediction world to see if the tests could accurately determine what we are having.  I found 8 different versions that didn't seem to be to hokey that I put to the test.  I was going to do 9, but after finding out that the Drano test involved toxic fumes I decided to pass.  

1.  Parents.com Quiz:  Boy

     This quiz was very similar to the actual "old wives tales" quiz, but with a few random one inserted into     

     it.  Questions on leg hair, cravings, weight gain, and questions of the personal sort that I will not 

     mention.

2.  Chinese Lunar Calendar:  Girl

     Based on my age and the lunar calendar when this baby was actually conceived.  I don't know why I 

     put more validity in this one...I'm a big fan of acupuncture so all Eastern Medicine must be right-

     right?!?  

3.  Old Wives Tale Quiz:  Boy

      Similar to the Parents.com 

4.  Heart Beat:  Girl

     Our little one's HB has been above 140 every time, so according to this method the baby is a girl.

5.  String tied to the wedding ring:  Girl

     This one required the help of Rob, and we could stop laughing while we were doing it.  It took    

     forever.

6.  Math Formula:  Boy

     This one took my age and added the month the baby was conceived, and it was an odd number.

7.  About.com:  Boy

     This one kept asking what position my pillow faced at night which was weird, but I guess none of 

     these are actually scientific.

8.  Sexwizard.com:  Boy

     This website advertised that it has pretty accurate results, so I tried this one as well.  It was more of the 

     same, so it was no surprise when it came back boy as well!

So according to most of the tests that require I answer questions about my pregnancy itself, they pointed to BOY (5/8) or 63% chance.  The other three tests that pointed to girl don't have much in common (37% chance), so we shall see what it comes back as on Thursday!

OH BABY!

So I can finally let our cat out of the bag...we are having another BABY!!!!  The new addition is due early March, and I am SUPER excited.  I had to keep it under wraps for a while for work stuff (silly I know).  Unlike last time, we are finding out what we are having this time around.  I have way to many balls up in the air not to find out and plan in advance this go round.  We find out next Thursday what we are having...and I am anxious for that day to arrive.

Last time there was so much build up around the delivery and labor, I did not have time to really fret or focus on the gender to much, but this time because the two events are totally separate I feel super excited!  It is nice to think about finding out about the gender without having to worry about labor and all the crazy times surrounding the birth.  If we ever go for number 3, I bet we will wait again though.

So my gut feeling with E the whole time was that he was a boy.  We even went as far as decorating his nursery with cowboy stuff not knowing, but this time my sense isn't as strong.  I think it might be a girl, but I have a 50/50 chance right?  Selfishly, I think it would be a lot of fun to have a girl and all the things that go with it.  With that said, I would also LOVE LOVE LOVE for E to have a little brother.  E is pure boy, and I can't imagine having a little girl that would have to put up with all of the boy stuff.

This Sunday when Rob is finally off of work, I am going to test out all of the old wives tales determining what we are having, and I will reveal the results next week before the US to see how accurate they are.  I am craving pepperoncini's; I am barely showing at almost 18 weeks (I am smaller this time around); I am having crazy headaches which I normally don't get; and I am far more hormonal this time around.

So, here is my poll-boy or girl?

FYI-the US in the blog is not mine!  I just pulled it from the internet...I haven't had time to scan ours in yet.

Day Dreaming

When I day dream, I think about all the great things I will one day be able to accomplish in our backyard. I found the first picture in Southern Living Magazine, and decided that one day my yard will look like this picture.  I first need to line our (new-thank you Rob and Dad) back fence with birch trees, then pick a different type of tree for both side fences (I'm thinking Red Oaks).  This yard in the picture is a perfect rectangle, and our backyard also happens to be a perfect rectangle as well.

Rob is a pretty handy guy when it comes to power tools and building things, so he promised me he would build me that structure to hang 2 swings from.  We have a ridiculous amount of left over brick from the house that I have held on to, and now I have found its new purpose.  The brick patio the pergola will sit on!  I am obviously dreaming of cooler and shadier times for our backyard which has been scorched my the relentless sun around here!  Maybe one day I can have my out of town friends over to enjoy our shaded back yard while we sit, swing, and drink sweet tea.  Who would like to join me?

Groupon Picture Deal

If I haven't mentioned before how much I love Groupons, let me say it now...I love Groupons!  I got a screaming deal on a sitting from a photographer (Skipping Stone Studios), and here are a few of the shots they got!  They don't provide any digital images, so I had to scan them in-so the quality is just so so.  I hope I'm not breaking any copyright issues with publishing their images but I am giving them credit and I did pay for the pictures (Am I doing this right Lisa?).

 The picture above was the only one of all of us that had everyone, including the girls looking at the camera.  Their floor is a weird shade of rust, so the girls almost blend in.

 E was just about to start unraveling so this was the last family shot we got.  I have to say that the family shots turned out ok, but I LOVE the pictures of just E.

 My happy boy with his cute little dimple!

 He looks sooooo much like Rob, I can hardly believe it!

 This last picture of E is sooo him.  When he gets shy he plays with his hands in his lap and he starts to kick one of his legs.  He typically will tuck his chin under, but the photographer caught this moment just before he did.  This boy makes me smile!

We clearly brought the girls, and we were so glad that we did.  They provided the comic relief at the end to get the smiles and laughs out of E when he was so clearly done with taking pictures.  How I wished the pics could have been outside, but when we had them done it was roughly 110 degrees.  Needless to say, we did a studio sitting!  After looking at these pictures it struck me how much my little man has grown!!!

Mommy Wings

So this is a few weeks overdue, but it seems most things on my life are overdue these days.  Rob's sister and brother in law welcomed a beautiful baby boy into their lives.  They waited to find out what the gender was going to be, so he was a VERY fun surprise.  Chris & Megan were both somewhat expecting a girl, and when they announced it was a boy-they were surprised at how surprised they were that it was a boy!  Megan made the comment that she was expecting a 7lb girl, and she got a 9lb boy!

It has been so fun to watch how natural she is as a mom.  She spent the first 5 days at the hospital recovering from the c-section, and now that she is home it is cool to see her really fill the mom shoes.  I forgot how tiring it is being at the hospital, being that the amazing nurses in L&D have to do their job and constantly check on you-it makes it hard to fall into a routine and figure it out on your own.  There is always someone coming in to give you more drugs, take your blood pressure, and also give you their advise for how to do something.  I was tired every time I left the hospital just visiting.  My mother in law was in town for the first 2 weeks to help make that transition home and to take the night shifts so Megan could rest up (as best as any new mom can).

Her little man is as sweet as they come, and she has that new mommy glow.  A glow that is mixture of sleep deprivation and worry that we have all experienced.  I am so excited that she has a boy.  I can only speak from being the mom of a boy, but there is something so sweet about the love that a boy has for his mother.  I am excited that I will have that connection with her in our lives as we raise the cousins together.

So to echo Annie's post from a few months back, Megan has her mommy wings.  Everyday more and more she is realizing that her heart no longer lives inside of her, but now resides in her little man.

Recalculatin

I

I had to travel for work not to long ago, and I was issued a GPS that was not updated. My experience driving in the city I did not know well looked a lot like this! I laughed so hard when I saw this commercial again after my GPS snafu!

Date Night

Rob and I had the privilege of escaping for an evening to go see a movie this past weekend. Tutu (Grandma Ann) is in town, and we took advantage of the eager babysitter! It was great. We used to go the movies weekly before E, and now that is a distant memory. I don't mind missing the theater, but I do love it when we can go these days. We got to go see "Crazy, Stupid, Love." It is the best movie I have seen in a LONG time. It was hilarious. It actually made me cry I was laughing so hard. It was the perfect mesh of girl/guy humor that every good date movie needs.

The ending was very Shakespearian, being that it had 5 plots going at once and they all came together at the perfect moment and had an ironic twist. Lately I feel that movies have been pushing the envelope of gross/sexual humor to make it shockingly funny, but this movie did a good job with the actual story. Yes there was some sexual humor for sure, but I did not feel that I could not "un-see or un-hear" anything in the movie. Most of the movie is Steve Carrel (sp?) learning to get his mojo back after a heart break while Ryan Gossling is his mojo tutor.

So to all the mama's and dads out there in need of a good romantic comedy but not to romantic and more of a comedy movie-this is it. Go see Crazy Stupid Love. It will make you laugh!

Full Plate

There are times when my friends call and ask what is going on and I say...not much! The past few weeks have not been that way. Without getting into all the drawn out details, my plate has been very full. It seems that life has pushed a lot my way-most of them good things and a few of them sad. When things calm down in a few weeks, I will post pictures and tell all the stories but until then this is what I got for y'all:

1. Everett is talking up a storm. The past week he has asked for bacon, eggs, and Papa (my dad) every morning, then tells me that he has boogers. It makes me laugh.

2. My sister in law is having a baby on Thursday, and I can't wait to meet this little one. This baby has been wanted for long long time, and I can't wait for Megan to hold her little one and to "get it." Good stuff.

3. My car broke down today, and I had to hang out at 7-Eleven and a dry cleaners while I waited for the tow truck. There is really good people watching there, and it is amazing what you can actually buy at a 7-11. Did you know that they actually sell beer-pong there? I thought it was a game you improvised the materials to put together, but they sell the complete set at our 7-11.

4. My new go-to TV show is Surprise Homecoming on TLC. I am a sucker for feel good TV, and this is the definition of it. I sometimes have a hard time sleeping when Rob is working, so I started recording this show because there is NOTHING scary about it that will cause me to loose even more sleep. I cry through the entire show-the entire show. It makes me appreciate those that serve our country, and it also reminds me of the sacrifice their families make. If you are looking for a feel good show-this is it. Billy Ray hosts the show, and he actually does a decent job of highlighting what it is all about (meaning-not him).

There is more to come about the happenings of this week, but until then-this is it!!!

Happy Birthday Annie-This is LONG overdue!

So as it turns out, two years ago when we were all turning 30 I made a list of my top 30 things I loved about Annie. I did the same thing for my other bestie Andrea, and the reason her list was actually put online was because it was before Everett was born. Everett was born just two weeks before her big day, and I ended up taking off at least 6 months from blogging. Needless to say, it was never posted. Annie's list has been on my "to do" list for no less than 2 years. That is right-my to do list has items that have been around for years.

So with out further ado-Annie I am SOOOO sorry this took me two birthdays past your 30th to get this online, but I hope you appreciate it never the less. I love you-you are the best!

Top 32 Things I Love about Annie!

1. You wear your emotions out on your sleeve. I love that I never have to guess what is going on with you.

2. Your honesty is refreshing. Most people can't say the hard thing and you can. Thank you.

3. You love your children so much it keeps you from taking care of your own bodily functions-I know you know what I'm talking about. ;)

4. You are madly in love with your husband. Anyone who spends 5 minutes with you knows this to be true.

5. You have mad writing skills. I still think that you should "author" something-anything. It could be your golden parachute one day.

6. You always take such good care of your cars. I have no memory of any car you have ever owned being dirty or messy.

7. You love your siblings as if they were your own. Some kids out there never feel the love from their own moms, and in your siblings cases-they feel the love from two.

8. The emotions of Joe are so intricately tied to your own. That tells me how much you love the boy.

9. Most people have "secret obsessions." You are not afraid to own any obsession that you may have. You rock the love for JT and now the Biebs proudly. Your obsessions are not secret, and you have the confidence you "rock it!"

10. You have an amazing ability to make the simplest outfit into a trendy/stylish one. I have to buy something I see off of a mannequin to know if it works.

11. You extended your family to me when mine was falling apart. Thank you.

12. Outwardly you are one of the most strikingly beautiful people I have every seen, but it is your inward confidence that really makes you glow.

13. You are not afraid to try new things (like moving to Seattle without knowing a single soul!)

14. Your hair has been many shades over the course of our friendship, and I love them all on you.

15. You have a great work ethic.

16. You are quick to love and slow to throw stones at people.

17. The past year has thrown many curve balls at you, and you have survived them all and with a smile on your face! Well done.

18. You embrace the craziness of having a boy! I totally get it.

19. You wash your feet at night. I like this about you-it makes me smile.

20. You and Andrea are totally entertaining together. I could just sit and watch you two crack each other up all day.

21. I love that you take pictures of yourself doing things. Some of my favorite pictures of you are taken by you.

22. In general I know that you don't love animals, but about a month ago you acknowledged how my "girls" could be viewed as a part of our little family. It was a big day for me to know that you understood it, even if you don't want it for yourself! Thank you!

23. You shared a room with me when I was falling a part. That couldn't have been easy-thanks for knowing when to ask the right questions and when to let me be.

24. You are a die hard stroller strides lady. It is hard getting out of the house with 2 kids, much less to go and push them around up a steep hill for an hour!

25. I can see so much of you in Lucy. I love that about her.

26. You keep up with people, no matter the distance or time between you and the other person. Your blog is proof of that.

27. You make time for date nights with your hubby.

28. You can start a conversation with anybody-anywhere. In general, people want to talk to you!

29. You are a good "sharer." I never have heard you say no to someone borrowing something of yours.

30. You can always find a reason to laugh. Even when you are in tears, you still generally laugh. I love your sense of humor.

31. I know I touched on this before, but your love for you kids is so apparent. It comes out of your pores.

32. I love that you are my friend. People have choices when it comes to being friends, so thank you for choosing to be my friend!

I love you Annie! Again, I am sorry that this took me so long to put this up. You are the BEST!

Happy Birthday E!

So today my little man is turning two! I can't believe that two years ago I was sitting in the hospital marveling at the little person I was holding that belonged to us. I had no idea how much love he would bring to our lives. Here are a few pictures from his weekend birthday party we had at the Little Gym. We all had a great time!

The picture above makes me laugh because we told E it was time to take a picture with my dad, and he grabbed his cupcake with both hands and shoved it in his mouth. He literally is double fisting it in this picture. :)
Here we are with Rob's sister and her husband-they are expecting their first next month! Hooray for cousins!

I hope that one day E will be able to understand how much he is loved!

4th of July

So our weekend was entirely too short, but it was a great one. We spent it down with family and friends at the Manning Ranch (my brother-in-laws parents ranch) south of FW. We were the only ones that brought our little one, and little E had a fantastic time. We spent our time in the pool, checking out the local wild life (cows, guinea hens, horses, catfish, cats, and horses), and eating entirely too much! E was so tired in fact that he was crying for his bed tonight. :)

The next 3 pictures are of E making a break for it down to the catfish pond, and he almost made it! Fortunately he took a digger (he was ok) so I was able to catch up with him.

His favorite Uncle Chris throwing him in the air. E's heart is going to break in about 6 weeks when Chris & Megan have their first baby! E loves his Uncle Chris!

Happy Birthday Andrea!

Happy Birthday to my dear, dear friend Andrea! I thought I would revisit the last 14 years of our friendship! (Can you believe that it has been 14 years?) I only have digital copies of the last 8 years, so let's take a walk down memory lane over the past 8. One of these days I will sit down and scan in all of my photo albums so I can include pics from your wedding and our Westmont days...but until then...here you go!

Here we are at my wedding. You were my BFF that held a champagne bucket for me because my dress was to big to fit into the bathroom before the wedding. You earned superstar status on that occasion! You did what my blood sister couldn't do-thank you!

Here we are at Bar & Kat's wedding in Fresno. Do you remember the warbling turkey that sounded off while her cousin sang during the ceremony? It still makes me laugh thinking of it.

Ryan & Sara's wedding in Fresno. What I remember from that day was how HOT it was during the ceremony, and also how pregnant Jannelle was as well.

Adam & Jill's lovely wedding. I think that we need to find more friends to get married because apparently weddings bring us all together.

Annie's wedding shower. You were pregnant in this picture and didn't even know it yet! :0)

Annie's bachelorette party in LV. You just told us you were preggers, and you had that fantastic glow to you!

Annie's wedding! What a fun weekend that was. (Look! I found a picture with the bloggers all together-Me, Nicole, Lisa, Annie, you, and Molly!) You were telling people that you were pregnant which was very fun.

Elsie's baby shower! I remember thinking that you were DEFINITELY having a boy, but boy was I wrong! And I am so glad that I was-I have loved watching transform as a mama over the years. Love it!

Here we are visiting while you were preggers with Brynn. This was the visit that I got to meet both of the girls!

Skip forward too many years, and here we are in lovely San Diego just a few short months ago. When we all got together it was as if time had not passed at all. We could all still be our quirkey-funny selves and be loved for it.

No matter where our paths take us, we will be friends until our time is up. I know that I am not the only person who thinks this, but I am so lucky to have you as my friend. Your willingness to give to others, and your sweet sensitive soul are two things that I adore-ney-love about you. Thank you for choosing to be friends with me. Happy Birthday Andrea! I hope you have a wonderful day.

3's

They say bad things happen in 3's right? Well, if I were superstitious-I would agree with them. The last 24 hours has been one of things breaking and costing a lot of money!

1. The Anti-lock break system in my car. Yikes. My car is only 3 years old, so when the break light came on it made me pause. After a call into On-Star (best feature ever sold on a car), it was determined that my car needed an immediate tune up to prevent my breaks from going out. It had something to do with the electronic board that controls the breaks. I don't know about you, but I don't put off servicing anything that controls my breaks. I have precious cargo named Everett that is not worth risking putting it off! Fortunately it was covered under the warranty, but it was still a deductible paid, a headache, and lots of time running back and forth.

2. The Refrigerator. Ugh. This fridge came with the house when we bought it, and I think it was the one that came from the builder. So lets just say that it did the job, but was not built for longevity. We have been doing some quick fixes recently trying to get a few more miles out of it, but it finally went kaput. Sooooo....a trip to Home Depot and a no interest payment plan later we will have our new fridge on Saturday. Until then, there are a lot of trips out to the garage fridge. The poor garage fridge is standing on its' last legs too, but boy am I glad we have it! The silver lining is that I have always wanted an ice/water dispenser, and now I will have one. I just did not want to have to buy a new one to get it-oh well. :)

3. My phone. ARGHHHHH! It was working one minute and then went totally dark the next. This little phone is my life line for work. When it does not work, it makes it hard for me to get work done! After Rob gave himself a head ache figuring it out, he worked his magic and voila!-it is now up and running. However, I keep looking at it skeptically thinking it will die on me any second again. I feel like that girl that has a steady boyfriend that inexplicably breaks up with her-then he comes to his senses and asks to come back. The girl takes him back but always has that feeling of doubt. Well-that is how I now feel about my phone.

I hope my bad luck streak is now done. I feel like I have spent my day trying to fix the "things" in my life that make my life infinitely easier. I guess this was a good reality check of what my days would look like with out my phone, car, or fridge.

Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend was a whirlwind of activity, and I am now tired because of it! We rode the little train down at the zoo. It is a 45 minute train ride for kids and it stops halfway through for snacks-it was awesome. I have driven past it millions of times not giving it a second glance, but we were invited by another family at E's school. It was great!

We had my parents over for a BBQ, after which we took E out to the yard to hose him off. He was so dirty from dinner, and it was so hot-we decided that the hose outside was a great option. E had a blast playing in the water.

Rob's sister & brother in law also came over for another BBQ on Monday, and we just relaxed. Overall it was a good weekend!

Baby G

Baby G will be joining the family in just a few short months, and there were 6 of us that got together to throw a shower to honor Megan. I have to say that I am thrilled with how it all turned out. I channeled my inner Andrea to make it all beautiful, and Megan was thrilled. Megan got a lot of great stuff-so many of her friends have baby's that are ages 3 and under so they all know what works and what doesn't!

Here are the 6 of us who puts our heads together to make it happen!
With 6 ladies working together, there is bound to be some drama-our drama revolved around the cupcakes. In the end it all worked out, and we met halfway with our opinions on what they should and should not be.
These baskets are a little find from TJ Max that I went a little crazy on with the "sunshine yellow" high gloss enamel spray paint. Yes they are a little bright, but I'm happy with how they turned out.

Anyone from Nevada County will know what those grey branches are...Manzanita branches! All the Texas girls thought they were expensive accessories, and when they found out it is like a "weed" in CA they were shocked.
One of the girls made these adorable cards which were a hoot to read back to everyone once they were completed.
This little signage (and the cupcake decor) was made my Megan's best friends mom in Grass Valley. It was awesome that she sent it!

The mom to be and her mother in law! Megan is doing great and is plugging along in her pregnancy like a champ. I never hear her complain about a thing. Baby G now has a fully stocked nursery, and we can't wait for the big day to arrive! I CAN'T WAIT!