Naomi's Nest

Dear Logan,

2011-05-19T20:27:00.000-07:00

You are about to be 10 years old.

I know you think you aren't a kid anymore, but you are my kid. I know you hate it when I tell people stories about you, but I want to share the awesomeness that is you with everyone I see. I know you hate it when I embarass you, but it is one of the perks of having given birth to you. (Just ask Mawmaw, you haven't even SEEN embarassment yet.) I want everyone to see how wonderful you are in everything you do, so I will tell the funny stories and I will cheer you on at every baseball, basketball, football game (please no), or band concert or robotics club contest you ever enter.

I also want to protect you from pain and sadness. When something or someone hurts you it breaks my heart into a million pieces. I just want to pull you into my arms and squeeze until the pain goes away.

I know I can't do that because you think you aren't a kid anymore.

So just know that the extra hug tonight at bedtime was me saying that tomorrow will be better.

My new toy

2011-03-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

So my husband loves me. He really loves me. And he lets me get basically whatever I want (within reason). And I told him I would sell my cricut and everything that goes with it if I could buy a Silhouette. I waited for a coupon code (they are all over the place on a ton of blogs I read) and I bought it! The angels sang the day I came home and found it on my doorstep.

Of course, I went online as soon as I got it all set up on my laptop and bought a ton of images that I loved. But my first project was for my son's baseball team. I decided to make labels for the buckets that are lined up on the back of the dugout that hold the kids gloves and helmets while they are playing games. Their team is the Hurricanes so I found the logo online and went to work.

There was a little bit of a learning curve, good thing I have lots of ink and paper.

Of course, I couldn't make my first project just a cut project, no, I've got to make things a little difficult and make it a print AND cut.

I finally figured out what I was doing wrong (it had to do with the registration marks) and tada!!

And having to do the same thing 10 times definitely helped me remember the steps.

I'm really excited about making some cute onesies for my niece, I might need to go online and buy some fabric interfacing while it's on sale!

I'm linking up at Serenity Now for Amanda's

Thanks for checking me out!

Work in Progress Wednesday

2011-02-16T11:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I finally finished that blue and brown blanket I've been working on for what seems like 2 years. And I started another one with some yarn that was donated to our church group for hospice blankets.

This is some old stuff ladies. Kmart is no longer in business around these parts and the skein has a price tag on it that says $1.27!

I'm linking up over at Ambassador Crochet.

Menu Plan Monday #3

2011-02-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

Well last week didn't go so well. We had some crazy cold weather here in town and that made our schedule all jacked up because my Mom had to pick up the boys a few days last week. Which means Mom cooked dinner and I didn't get to some of my planned recipes.

So here's the plan this week:

Monday - Cheesy Chili Mac from Weight Watchers (I'm not sure if this link will show up if you aren't a member) 7pts

Tuesday - Chicken Enchilada Soup 8pts with cheese, 5pts w/o the cheese

Wednesday - Chicken Teriyaki with Broccoli from Weight Watchers. This one came highly recommended by Becky. 7pts

Thursday - Asian Turkey Broccoli Slaw (I put this in my recipe builder with just chopped broccoli and cabbage, WW doesn't recognize broccoli slaw, and I got 2pts eating them as lettuce wraps, extra for tortillas)

Friday - Fish Tacos from last week we never made. 9pts/2 tacos

Logan has started writing tutoring on Tuesdays and Thursdays so those will be the tricky days because it's hard for us to get right home when we are leaving MawMaw's house. :)

Superbowl Sunday

2011-02-05T11:21:00.000-08:00

We have a big party to go to on Superbowl. I usually drink too many margaritas and snack on too many delicious snacks.

These are what I'm bringing to the party.

I have a feeling my diet is screwed this week. But I'm just gonna have fun Sunday and enjoy being with my friends and watching a game that I have absolutely no interest in...and then start again Monday on plan. I'm doing really well and I like how things are going.

I haven't been working out like I used to either. I kind of gave up around the holidays and it is so hard to get started again once you quit. The thing is that I have this strange urge to start running...and it's been WAY too cold for my TX blood to be running outside. This week might be the week that I HAVE to do something though to even out the weekend glutony.

Good luck to me!

Chicken Stroganoff...and meal plans

2011-02-02T09:05:00.000-08:00

So Monday nights dinner was de-lish!

Skinny Chicken Stroganoff from The Pampered Chef.

Please ignore my ugly dishes. =)

The boys approved, they practically licked the bowl. Logan had 3 bowls! Jack even ate the mushrooms, even though he didn't know they were in there. Wahahahaha...I love tricking my kids into eating vegetables.

Tuesday was kind of crazy and we ended up eating dinner at Mom's house, spaghetti, spaghetti tacos for the boys. Logan ate a taco and a full bowl of spaghetti there. I think he might be hitting a growth spurt which kind of worries me since he is already only about a foot shorter than me. I predict a 6th grader that is taller than me in a couple years.

Tonight is Beef Tamale Bake which should be good since there is abnormally cold weather hitting our area. Snow in Houston=Ridiculous!

Menu Plan Monday #2

2011-01-31T17:21:00.000-08:00

Last week went well for our first ever Menu Planned week. Logan was so excited that he knew exactly what was for dinner every night because I let him help me pick the recipes.

And I lost 2.4lbs. Go Weight Watchers!

Here's the plan for this week.

Monday - Skinny Chicken Stroganoff (7pps)

Tuesday - Blackened Fish Tacos (8pps/2 tacos)

Wednesday - Beef Tamale Bake (7pps)

Thursday - Black Bean Burgers (7pps, 4pps w/o bun, which is how I will probably eat it, buns for the boys)

Friday - Pita Pizzas (about 3pp for 1/2 a pizza)

These are all from The Pampered Chef's "It's Good for You" cookbook.

And all the points were figured out by me after putting the ingredients in the online recipe builder. I adapted a few recipes to match some ingredients we had so if you are doing these yourself you might want to build your own recipes.

I love Pampered Chef. And I love Weight Watchers.

I'm linking up at I'm an Organizing Junkie with Menu Plan Mondays.

Work In Progress Wednesday

2011-01-27T11:31:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know it's not Wednesday. I'm a day late (and a dollar short, story of my life).

But here is what I'm working on now...

Corner to Corner throw

a little close up of the stitch pattern.

It is all double crochets, super easy. This is my go to, easy peasy, no thinking/no counting favorite blanket pattern.

And this is what I finished yesterday (actually ON Wednesday).

It's the Berry Delight pattern from Ambassador Crochet. I think I did something wrong because the pattern doesn't lay like it does in her picture, so I'm going to try it again. But I just had to take a picture of my first wearable crochet pattern that actually fits a human head. :)

I'm linking up to W.I.P. Wednesday over on Ambassador Crochet.

Pizza Roll Up Burritos

2011-01-26T11:48:00.000-08:00

These are delicious. Everyone agreed.

I found the recipe here and I made a few changes to mine to get it down to 6pts per serving! (Yeah baby!)

I used these tortillas (a whopping 1 pt each)

And the mozzarella cheese sticks from WW that are only 1pt. (sorry no pic, and I can't find the image online)

I only make 1/2 the recipe because I was short turkey and I didn't want to make a huge serving of a first time recipe. I also put the cooked onions and green peppers into the food processor to guarantee a certain little picky eater didn't boycott the dish.

Here's the dish on our fancy pants dinner ware (zoo pal plates for those of you w/o littles)

This will definitely be a regular staple in our kitchen.

Menu Plan Monday #1

2011-01-24T16:25:00.000-08:00

I'm trying something new this week. I've planned out our weekly dinners a la Menu Plan Monday at The Organizing Junkie. I've always wanted to do this to simplify my life, because as soon as the boys walk in the front door after school they are STARVING. And they usually eat a ton of snack/junk food before I can get dinner cooked. That combined with me starting Weight Watchers last Thursday has made me finally break down and try it. Here's the plan:

Monday - Pizza Roll Up Burritos
( I found some new products that make this meal clock in at only 6 pps!)

Tuesday - Cheeseburger Casserole (from the Weight Watchers website)

Wednesday - BBQ Chicken Chili (from the Weight Watchers website) with cornbread

Thursday - leftovers/oven easies(chicken nuggets, meatballs, taquitos, etc., one, not all!)

Friday - Fiesta Stuffed Peppers

Friday is subject to change to Mexican food and Margaritas out at our favorite mexican restaurant...

Casa Mariachi

depending on how my week goes... :)

So hopefully this will work out and I can do it more often...and blog too. But you never know about that last part.

Letters to Santa frames

2010-11-30T11:08:00.000-08:00

I found this fabulous idea over here on Char's blog. (Love her!)

Started with a couple of these...1/2 price at Hobby Lobby of course

Why exactly does this need to be attached to the frame? oh, sorry, easily distracted...

A little help from my trusty Cricut...(I hope she hasn't heard me talking about trading her in for a Silhouette!)

Wha-laa!

The boys are going to leave these on the table by Santa's cookies with a little note to him. Something we do every year. Santa leaves a note for us too, cause he's a sweetie like that.

What's happening...

2010-10-26T11:18:00.000-07:00

Check out what I'm working on...Thank you cards for a sweet little girls 1st birthday party.

I'm also working on building up my albums on my Facebook page so if you aren't a fan on that page, what are you waiting for???

Facebook fan page

2010-10-23T17:59:00.000-07:00

I've set up a page on Facebook to sell my cards and crafts. I don't know what the hell I'm doing (on Facebook that is) because I can't figure any of it out. And it's connected to my personal page with confuses me on a whole other level. I'm trying to add a "Like" box to my blog here and of course Facebook picks the one night I'm actually trying to do something on there to suck, hard. I thought the direct link to my page was www.facebook.com/naomisnest but for some reason that is saying page not found. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions on what I'm doing wrong I'm all ears. Please. PLEASE!

Ugh.

And if that's not frustrating enough, I can't pass Level 5-21 on Angry Birds to save my life.

Update: I learned that you have to have 25 fans before you can pick your username. Why couldn't FB have just told me that when I was trying to set it up?!?

Etsy

2010-10-13T07:47:00.000-07:00

So I set up an Etsy shop for my cards and crafts and such.

http://www.naomisnest.etsy.com/

Don't laugh because there is only one thing listed. I'm working on more and last night was full of Glee so I didn't get online. And while I'm here, a special card I've been working on, by request. Congratulations, baby girl, pink, brown, elephants were the keywords.

From girly to boyish?

2010-10-12T10:45:00.000-07:00

I need some help. My Mom is giving us this old furniture because Logan needs some furniture in his room. It looks pretty feminine and obviously it's going to be used in a boy's room. Any ideas for ways to man up this furniture? I was thinking of maybe cutting the spools off the bed frame...but the dressers I'm at a total loss. I'm not even sure we will use the vanity looking one, but we could use that tall dresser.

Oh, and his bedding is blue, black and lime green stripes/solids. (think Ben 10)

Or should I just put it all on Craigslist and start looking for something more boyish?

Tonight

2010-09-17T11:12:00.000-07:00

Tonight I am packing my craft bags and heading to my Mom's house for some much needed girl time and crafty goodness. I have an large extra bedroom in my house that is my craft room. I have a ton of stuff that I barely find time to mess with most of the time. I have packed up the necessities (really, I had to condense it to 4 bags) and I'm hoping to get some stuff made to send with a friend when she does a craft show in November.

my bags

And I just finished these coasters, so next week I'm hoping to put up some more posts of some things I got finished at this party. Be on the lookout!

Jackson, the beginning of baseball

2010-09-09T13:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend my baby, my 3 year old, has his first baseball game. Mike is coaching his team. It’s interesting because we’ve been involved in the league since Logan started Tball 5 years ago. But we’ve never had our own team. And Tball-ers at that! They are definitely not known for their long attention spans.

At our first practice, 5 minutes into the warm up time we had a couple kids asking if it was time to go home yet. After a little while I think they got into it and had fun. Jack, of course, being the well mannered and obedient child he always is just ran around doing his own thing half the time. Oh well, sometimes you have to pick your battles huh?

Jack needs a little help on his throwing form...I think he's been watching too much Major League pitching because he thinks that's the only way to throw the ball.

We really need more practice this week but with Tropical Storm Hermine hitting us it looks like that might not happen. Saturday should be interesting. Pics to come soon!

My little reader

2010-09-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend Logan wanted to go to the bookstore. This is the kid I had to bribe last year to read enough to fill up his reading log for school. So of course we went to the bookstore. This is what he picked out. And this is him reading...

He read most of the day...and is over halfway done with the book. I really love that he found something he loves to read. I love to read for fun and I hope this is the start of him loving it too.

The long weekend gets even longer...

2010-09-07T16:58:00.000-07:00

Mike and I both had a 3 day weekend, which hardly ever happens, so we packed as much into it as we could. It kind of started Thursday night, when my BFF got us free last minute tickets to the Texans game. We were close. This is a pic from our seats, with no zoom.

Then, on Saturday, we celebrated my nephew's first birthday with a party at his house. The boys absolutely LOVE going over to Aunt LaLa's. They are staying with her while we are on our cruise in November and every day Logan asks me if it's November yet. Here's the birthday boy taking a whack at the pinata with the help of Uncle Mike.

And Jack getting in some extra batting practice...

Mike playing with the big kids...

Sunday afternoon we all went over to Mom's for some swimming and BBQing...we had fajitas and all the fixins. The boys stayed with Mom and Dad Sunday night because we were going to a friend's going away party. Kim, I am going to miss you sooo much! The rodeo won't be the same without you...(she's the shorty, 2nd from the left)

When we got to the karaoke bar where her going away party was at, I was telling Mike in the car how much I wished Laura was gonna be there because I hadn't seen her in forever. And guess who practically attacked me when I walked in the door! Laura! She is the blonde in the pic next to me. It was so good to see her and catch up. We stayed there for a while and then we went to Big Texas to get some dancing in. And Ladies and Gentlemen, I met my first online blog friend in real life. Hattie's blog is one of the first I added to my reader and a fellow Mom to boys (she's got me way beat though, she has 4!). I recognized her when I first saw her fly past me to groove on the dance floor. It was really neat to meet someone that I feel like I know just from what she writes on her blog.

When we picked up the boys the next day, we found out Jack had gotten sick at Mom's...in the middle of the night and all over her and her bed. eww. Sorry Mom. And then last night Logan was up all night puking. He stayed home from school today to recover and I got to spend some quality time with him watching Camp Rock 2...for the 20th time so far. So along with the good comes the bad, but that's life right?

All in all, it was a pretty good run of days off. :)

About me

2010-08-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

a little get to know me from my new Twitter friend @issascrazyworld...You can find her blog here.

1. Married? Kids? Names and ages? Animals? I mean if you are willing to tell me. I adore names.

I’m married to Mike, married for 9 years this October.
2 boys, Logan Chase and Jackson Earl

2. If you could have any super power, what would it be?

I think I’d like to be able to make stupid people shut up and just walk away…

3. You’re given 1 million dollars, what do you spend it on?

Probably the house of my dreams, even though we just moved into our house a year ago…I gave up a lot for location.

4. You are having twins. Congrats. What would you name them?

They better be girls! And then they can have the names I picked out for both my boys before I knew they were boys…Grace Elizabeth and Lillian Mari

5. What’s one thing you miss about being a kid?

Summers, they aren’t the same as an adult…and I just miss everyone being healthy and well and young

6. Where would you like to retire too, if money were no option?

The Texas hill country, San Marcos, New Braunfels

7. Favorite cereal?

Cheerios

8. Autobots or Deciptcons?

Autobots all the way

9. Who was your first celebrity crush? Who is it now?

Cory Haim, hmmm…now, I have a lot, but if I had to pick one I’d pick Gary Allan

10. Do you have a best friend? More than one? What’s your favorite quality in each of them?

Robyn…she’s always been there to take care of me and make me laugh and just be the sister I never had.

Jamie…I know no matter what is going on we always understand each other and we’ll always be there for each other.

11. What is one thing you adore about each of your kids? (or spouse. or pet.)

Logan’s sprinkle of freckles across his nose, and that he is so sweet and caring…such a good big brother

Jackson is so smart and funny and really loves to help anyone.

12. What is your most listened too song on iTunes?

No itunes, but I listen to country mostly…Randy Rogers Band

13. What’s a new blog that you love?

www.bloggingdangerously.com

14. Ever been to NYC? What’s one thing I should see/place I should eat?

Never been! Have a blast!

15. Are you going to BlogHer? Would you like to meet me?

No blogher for me, but I would definitely meet you if I was going.

Shakeology and Beachbody

2010-07-17T12:57:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of this year, I've started being very mindful of what I'm putting in my body. I'm trying to lose weight (aren't we all?) and just be healthier in general. I found a friend online who asked me if I wanted to make some extra money while working towards my goals. Sounds great right? So in May of this year, I joined Team BeachBody as an Independent Coach. I haven't really advertised what I've done because I felt like I should try out some of the products before I could really recommend them to anyone. I started with the Shakeology shakes.

The chocolate flavor is good! My favorite way to drink it is in a blender with 1/2 a cup of frozen cherries and a cup of almond milk. Delicious!! And just today I put half of my shakeology in the freezer while I worked out and when I took it out it was slushy frozen goodness. Everyday I find something new or some new way that I love this drink. You can have a shake as a meal replacement or as a snack during the day. The shake itself (mixed with water) is only 140 calories.

I usually drink a shakeology in the morning for my breakfast. I have more energy and just feel better when I start my day with these. I can definitely tell a different when I miss my shakes.

If you want to try a shake for yourself, I have single serving packets of chocolate available for $5 each. If you want to jump start your weight loss you can do a 3 day Shakeology cleanse for $45 (9 shakes total).

I decided to start working out with the Turbofire program. I have never been in LOVE with a workout like this. It is fun, high energy,with lots of great music to keep you motivated to move harder and faster. The workouts are between 15mins and 55 minutes. I wear a heart rate monitor to see how many calories I'm burning per workout. I am addicted to seeing that number go higher! (so far, I range between 400-1000 cals per workout!)

So I've lost about 5 pounds and about 6 inches since starting Shakeology and Turbofire. I took before pictures but I'm not at the point yet to where I'm brave enough to post them. Maybe one day, when I have after pictures I'll do that. :)

If you have any questions about any of the BeachBody products or programs please let me know. If you'd like to check things out you can go to my websites below.

www.beachbodycoach.com/naomisnest
www.myshakeology.com/naomisnest

MySpace blog: 09/18/08

2010-06-07T09:04:00.000-07:00

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Ike related ramblings...
Current mood: bummed

Let me just say that I can totally understand why those Galvestonians want to get back to their homes so desperately. We suffered absolutely nowhere near the damage they have and really none at all. We've been out of power since the storm...we've been staying with my parents since Thursday. Tuesday night, we went to check on the house and lo and behold...we had power. So all day I've just been thinking about getting home, cleaning up, getting on with our lives. And then after we spent 3 hours packing up or stuff at Mom's (hey, we have a lot of crap!) I get a call from Mike who made it home before us. Our power is out again. According to our neighbor, at around 12:30am this morning the transformer in front of our house blew a fuse and BURST into flames. He really said flames were shooting out of it. I just wanted to cry...did in fact. Logan too. I think I would be okay dealing with my own desperate need to be normal again but how do you explain to a 7 year old that we still can't go home. And how do you make him understand that we are the lucky ones because we still have each other and our home IS intact, and there are a lot of people without the simple necessities. All he wants to do is go home...and I do too.

MySpace blog: 09/17/08

2010-06-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Hurricane Ike

So the hurricane is over and people are slowly getting their lives back in order and under control. Our house was thankfully spared the brunt of the winds...we had some fence down in the back and a few big limbs thrown across our yard. We've been out of power since the storm and we just found out tonight that it's back on. We've been staying at my parents since Thursday and I love my parents and I know they wouldn't want us anywhere else but there is only so long 6, sometimes 7, people can cohabitat without going nuts. I'd like to say that I stayed up and "lived through" the storm but the truth is I slept through most of it, along with the boys thank goodness. Mike stayed up ALL NIGHT LONG to make sure the boys didn't wake up and get scared. He also went to work yesterday and worked an extra shift on his day off since I couldn't go to work and I'm not really sure how that is all going to work out. There are no words for how much I love him and everything he does for our family. Now, as I see all the pictures and listen and read all the reports of people who survived the storm and the buildings that did not...I'm really saddened by some of the things we have lost.

I know the water in Galveston is disgusting and that some people hate it...but just look at all the history that has now been washed away with the storm surge and thrown back to the land in a big pile of kindling. Just last month me, my mom, my aunts and my meemaw went to Galveston for a girls day. For my Meemaws birthday. She said she wanted to walk on the beach one more time before she was gone. We had a great day. We went shopping at some gift shops, ate at Guidos, drove by all the old beach houses we used to rent during the summers. But our day ran out before we walked on the beach. She said it was okay we'd just do it next year. And now, even if you forget about the fact that Murdoch's is gone and so many other historic places. How can you walk down the beach now and not think about all the destruction and pain?

This was really the first big storm in my lifetime, I was only 4 when Alicia hit. And I just can't hardly bare to see all the things that were lost and how the landscape of galveston, that I've known all my life, will never be the same.

I know all that stuff is material and what I should be focusing on is the fact that (the last time I checked) they found 60 SURVIVORS on Boliver! That in itself is a true miracle after seeing the pictures of what is left there. I think I'll try to focus on that when I think about the stuff we've lost.

Update: My Meemaw suffered a stroke and heart attack a few months back. She is slowly recovering and the only thing she lost with the stroke was a little mobility and her speech. She's already talking much better than she did right after. We are thankful for that. And for her birthday this year (August) we are going back to Galveston and will walk on the beach and revisit the newly rebuilt Murdoch's pier.

MySpace blog: 06/30/08

2010-06-05T08:55:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 30, 2008

The power of prayer...before and after
Current mood: blessed
Category: Life

Something happened this weekend that made me realize how powerful a prayer can be. Most people pray. Whether to God or some other being that your faith has you believe in. You pray for people who are sick or having a hard time. Sometimes you might pray for someone to change their life and open their heart. My Mother prays. She is a woman very strong in her faith and life has thrown a lot at her to build up her faith and make it stronger than she could possibly ever imagine. She has several prayer groups/circles online and in person and tons of people she has never met and continues to pray for. I guess now I see how much prayer can help someone before they even need it.

My brother was in an accident this weekend. He was hit by a trash truck. The entire passenger side of his truck was ripped off along with the roof of the cab. His truck is surely totalled and the only part of the truck not smashed and ripped apart is the drivers seat area where he was sitting. There was no passenger with him physically but there were definitely some angels holding him tight when that truck hit him. My brother doesn't go to church with us and I really don't even know if he prays at all...but my Mom prays for him.

So keep praying for the ones you love, the people on the news, the people you walk past everyday...everyone could use an extra prayer. You never know when it'll come in handy.

P.S. This blog makes me cry all over again every time I read it.

MySpace blog: 03/03/08

2010-06-03T08:54:00.000-07:00

Monday, March 03, 2008

Life

My mom sent me this video. It's really great so go check it out when you have time. It's about 12 minutes long but definitely worth it.

http://video.stumbleupon.com/p=ithct48cqw

Naomi

MySpace blog: 02/26/08

2010-06-02T08:50:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Tagged...
Category: Life

Here's how you play: Once you've been tagged you have to write a blog with 10 weird random facts, habits, secrets, or goals about yourself, at the end choose 10 people to be tagged. List their name and why you tagged them. Don't forget to leave them a comment saying "You're It!" and to go read your blog. You can't tag the person who tagged you! So since you can't tag me back let me know when you are done so I can read your blog answers!

1. I've been told I have a really good singing voice, but the only people I will ever sing in front of or to are my sons.
2. I am currently in "crazy, mad, determined" mode to get my finances under control, including paying off my debt and destroying the evil credit cards.
3. My mom is one of my best friends.
4. I love my friends and I HATE to see them in relationships with shitty guys when I KNOW they deserve the best.
5. I'm still trying to talk Mike into having kid 3...I'll always want my little girl.
6. I'm a really bad nail biter.
7. I'm obsessed with email...I love getting email.
8. I like to put little notes in Logan's lunch kit. And I love it even more when he thinks it's cool.
9. I hope my boys grow up and are always as close as they are now.
10. I wish I was more outgoing around new people.

Ten people I'm tagging to do this themselves...

Becky - cause she's a blogging fool
Robyn - because she never will
Tracey - so we'll have more stuff to laugh about on the way home.
Laura - because she never has time.
Jamie - cause she'll call me bitching about it.
Tristen - just cause I love her and miss her so much!
Nicole - cause we love our Aunt Cole
Lonnie - why not?
Kelli - cause she's so close but we hardly ever talk anymore!
Jennifer S. - because she's not busy enough with a newborn...lol

An update...
I'm still struggling with #2, and #5 is DEFINITELY ABSOLUTELY OUT THE WINDOW. I'm done!

MySpace blog: 12/19/07

2010-06-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

A few of my favorite things...
Current mood: blessed

In no particular order, my boys telling Santa what they want for Christmas. Me telling Logan he CANNOT ask Santa for money to buy a Wii. Christmas hayrides singing christmas carols and looking at christmas lights. Bundling up for the hayride because it's so cold. Jackson discovering stuff about Christmas for the first time. My dancing singing Santa Claus. Christmas card pictures. The angel my grandmother gave me. Hot cookies and baking for friends and family. Of course hearing the praises of how wonderful a chef I am! lol Beautiful Christmas lights and Logan being all excited when there is a word he can read in the yard...like Peace, Joy or Jesus. My grandmother's old Santa doll that always reminds me of Christmas when I was a little kid with all my family.

(pictures were inserted here)

And last but not least, our tree. There's no picture of it here but it's full of colored lights and ornaments from my grandmother's tree and from each year we've spent as a family. Logan's ornaments he makes at church. Little frames with pics of the boys every year. I think those trees in the store are beautiful, with all the matching ornaments and trimmings. But I think our tree is the most wonderful, nothing matches, some ornaments are handmade and some are so old they just sit on a branch because the hanger's too old. And most of all the nail that hangs in the back that is only for us, not for show. To remind us what the season is really about. Each thing on that tree reminds me of some memory that I might have forget during the year. And I can look back at Logan's first Christmas picture and be in amazement that the baby in that picture is now the most amazing kid in the world. A few years ago we bought some colored glass balls to fill up the tree and it makes me so happy each year when I can put less of those colored balls on and more of our memories.

Okay, I've got to stop now I'm getting all weepy.
Merry Christmas!!!

MySpace blog: 10/30/07

2010-05-31T08:28:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

My favorite thing to do with my kiddos...
Current mood: excited
Category: Life

So I think one of the best parts about being a parent is getting to dress up your kids as cute little things. And of course I always love showing off how creative I can get with costumes and such. So I LOVE Halloween and I was so excited to dress the boys up as something cute that matched/went together. I had all these great ideas and I was so excited about them. But as they get older they get a little mind of their own and they won't let you dress them like you want to or get them little Halloween costumes with themes. So the moral of my story is dress them like you want when they are little and take lots of pictures to embarass them when they get into high school. One of the perks of having to go through labor.

This is the reason why poor Jack had to be a bat for his first Halloween...because Mr. Big Stuff just HAD to be a Vampire!

BTW, Logan has a Paper Bag Costume Parade at his school Wednesday for Halloween so I made him a costume using ONLY paper! I had to bribe him to get him to wear what I wanted to make...lol. Be on the lookout for the pics!! It's going to be the best costume in the school!!!!! And yes, I am WAY more excited about it than he is...

Here's his paper bag costume...

back from the MySpace graveyard...

2010-05-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

The next few days I'll be reposting a few blogs from my MySpace page. Yea, I said it...that's really the first place I started blogging at all and there are only a few. I'm doing this before I delete the entire page. I tried to delete it tonight and it asks you about 152 times if you are sure. That last time I thought, wait, I need to save those blogs and keep them for posterity. So here goes...reposted along with dates so we can all see what I was thinking oh so long ago...

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Children are amazing...
Category: Life

We went to Parent Orientation at Logan's school last night. He's in first grade. Last year, at the end of Kindergarten, I was just amazed by the amount of stuff he learned and how much he had progressed. I mean he can read! It is so amazing to me how much their little minds absorb and how they can remember stuff and learn new things. It just reminds me that he's not a baby anymore, he's a little person. He's so imaginative and he just says things all the time that are so off the wall. So grown up and you think, "where in the world does he learn that stuff?" So last night when his teacher was going over their curriculum and what the kids are expected to know by mid year and at the end of the year. I was just blown away by the fact that my kid will be that much smarter in 9 months. I can't believe he's grown up so fast. Now with Jack doing so much too I just think that it feels like just yesterday Logan was learning to walk and talk. Now he's learning to read and add and tell time and count money. Oh man. Kids are truly a gift from God to show us the simpler things in life.

I really think now that Teachers have the best job in the world (besides Moms) and I just want to thank all the teachers out there for using their skills and talents to shape our little one's minds.

P.S. My son Logan, the subject of this entry, will be celebrating his 9th birthday next week and will be going into the 4th grade next Fall. That time, she sure does fly.

My first t-shirt refashion

2010-05-14T09:43:00.000-07:00

So I’m volunteering at the Pasadena Strawberry Festival this weekend. I was one of the last bunch to get our volunteer shirts so this is what I got.

That’s a really really big XL if you are wondering.

So I felt the need to do a little alterations. You should know that sewing has never been my favorite “crafty” thing to do. I feel the same way about sewing as I do about manual transmission cars. I know enough to keep myself out of a ditch…but it’s not my preferred mode of crafting/driving.

So I checked out some refashioning blogs yesterday to kind of get some ideas and here is what I did.

First, I found a shirt that fits me well. I used this as my pattern.

Sorry for the bad pictures, I started this at about 10:30 last night, I know, crazy...and they were taken by my husband.
Then I just started cutting…(BTW, I did this on a practice shirt first...learned A LOT of what NOT to do that way)

I cut the sleeves off just on the inside of the seam…and I cut about an inch outside the yellow shirt to leave a little room for the seams.

And I cut the sleeves like this…

I also had to cut the sleeves along the seam and resew them smaller.

Onto the sewing…

All I had was black and white and other various color threads, none that were red so I just used black. I used a zig zag stitch so it would still stretch a little (learned that from a blog).

Once I got the sides and arms sewn back on the shirt was still long enough to be a dress (although a really skanky one)…I didn’t want to cut the bottom and mess with the hem…I was trying to K.I.S.S. (remember that from school?!). So I used a basting stitch on the sides and then pulled them some so they would gather and then sewed back over the gathered section to hold it. It’s a little wonky on one side still but really, I’m probably never gonna wear this shirt again.

It was fun trying something new though, I’ve always wanted to refashion a shirt into something cooler. Here’s the finished product.

Kale Chips

2010-05-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to eat better. More veggies (which I use to hate) and different new (to me) foods. I've been reading a lot of healthy eating blogs and I keep reading about Kale Chips. What is Kale you ask? It's a type of cabbage. But it's a dark leafy green...major goodness for you. So I decided to pick some up at the store and try it myself. Here's the video where I got the directions.

Here's my Kale.

Here it is cooking

It shrinks down a lot when it's cooked

I had high hopes for this I have to say. I could really take it or leave it. I can't see myself chowing down and mindlessly eating these like potato chips. There were mixed reactions all around.

Mike said it was alright.

Jackson said they were goood.

Logan...

well, he gagged and spit it out in the trash. He made the most awesome face that I couldn't catch on camera. He said it was horrible. lol

So I don't think this will be going in the family cookbook. Now I've got to find something else to cook and use all this leftover fresh kale.

Reunion part II

2010-05-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

Alright, on to the actual reunion. The boys were SO PUMPED to go fishing. They had seriously been talking about it all week. If you weren't around the blog this time last year take a peek at this post from last years reunion and Logan fishing. My cousin Nicole and her new husband Jimbo came to the reunion this year too. I think they enjoyed hanging out and meeting everyone. Here's some pics from the weekend.

The boys walking from the Old House to Grandpa's trailer...

Aunt Susan helping Jack cast his line

Nicole and her big catch...

Jimbo and Jack in a serious conversation

cupcake decorating contest

my boys on the hayride

Jack and D.O.G.

playing football

Uncle Paul squirting the boys with cold water, they were having a blast.

Grandpa and Jack eating donuts

They boys love it out there...the next week Jack asked if we were going back to the country.

Johnson Family Reunion

2010-05-11T07:30:00.000-07:00

The first weekend in May, every year, we have a family reunion. My Mom's side of the family. My grandfather was born in this old house in Deadwood, TX. The biggest city close to it is Carthage, TX if you are looking on a map. This year my Mom and I drove up Friday morning just us girls so we could stop at all the junk shops and antique stores on the way. When we ride with the boys they won't let us stop.We got lots of "good" stuff.

This was at the first place we stopped...

Okay! Thanks Dear!!

Here's some stuff we got...

Mom's bird...this is made from an old tire!

An old timecard holder, Mom's gonna use it to display some of the cards she makes...that's my Mom. :)

more stuff...

Here's some awesome stuff I saw, but didn't buy...I'm not made of money y'all!
This glass was a beautiful turquoise crystal color

Vaseline glass...it glows in black light. Groovy huh?

This is going to be a two part post...cause we did a lot of stuff that weekend! This was just on the way up there.

Mother's Day

2010-05-10T07:30:00.000-07:00

I woke up yesterday morning with a little voice in my head. I hear Logan whispering, "Dad, Dad, wake up. It's Mother's day and we have to sign Mom's cards." I just kind of smiled and pretending to be asleep. I got up a few minutes later and Logan heard me and brought me the card they bought me. It was one of those talking cards with the little pink and green guys on it. They were singing a song that goes, You are so awesome and wonderful, even though we do bad things sometimes we know you still love us. Then they say they are gonna bake me a cake, and you hear a big boom...then they say, maybe we'll just go out for ice cream. Logan was cracking up laughing when I read it, and he said, "that's my favorite part, when they blow up the cake." And he signed his name, Jack's name and Dad.(cause you know he wouldn't wake up)

Then he tried to bring me a card from Mike and I told him to wait and let Dad give me that one. Turns out he went ahead and signed "Mike" on the inside and sealed it up. lol

Then we went to church, my brother came and surprised my Mom. (He never goes to church with us) Then mexican food and ice cream.

We came home and watched The Blind Side (even Logan sat and watched it, Jack fell asleep on the couch)

And then played baseball and played in the sprinkler.

I'm so glad these boys belong to me.

Show us Your Life: Kids names

2010-05-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

Hey, there's a party going on...a linky party. Over at Kelly's Korner.

It's called Show us Your Life: Kids names. I found it on my friend Hattie's blog. She's pretty cool, go check her out...she's got a houseful of boys too. 4 boys!

My boys have pretty special names. Here are their stories.

When I was pregnant with my firstborn, I wanted a girl. I seriously wanted a girl so bad that all I thought about were girl names. I had it all planned out, this baby's name was gonna be Grace Elizabeth. And then, I had an ultrasound and my little girl had a pecker. Soo...I had to come up with something. I love names that come from family. Names that mean something and are special to the family.

I have a cousin named Chase. In 1994, he was 5 years old and loved his father *Uncle Ed* and anything his father loved. My Uncle was a pilot but his license had expired so he was taking lessons to get certified to fly again. Chase always wanted to go with him and my Aunt never let him. He finally begged enough and she relented. It was January 2, 1994. The first time he got to fly with his dad. They were both killed in a mid air collision with another small private plane. Everyone on both planes was killed.

I asked my Aunt if I could use Chase's name and then Logan Chase was born...

We TTC for almost 3 years before I got pregnant with my youngest son...and again, I thought for SURE I was gonna have a girl. I wanted a little girl so bad. Again, I had a girl name all picked out. This baby's name was going to be Lillian Mari. Mari was a variation of Mary (my grandmother's middle name) and pronounce like Marie. I was also worried because Mike had already made me promise that if it was a boy we were using his Grandpa's name as the middle name. And then I saw another pecker...it's hard to describe but as soon as I walked into that ultrasound room I had a feeling it was a boy, and then when I saw his little face I didn't care whether that baby was a boy or a girl. I was just glad he was gonna be mine. This started a long hard search for a name that would "go with" his predetermined middle name. It was rough. Mike's grandpa died before we ever met but he was very special to Mike so there was no doubt he was gonna have his name. I gave him a hard time about the name but I made sure he had a first name that was cool enough to counteract it...

A few months later, Jackson Earl was born...(now you know why it was so hard)

We tell the boys all the time about why their names are "special".

P.S. I was going to post a pic of Chase but I don't have any digital ones, just hard copies. He was a gorgeous, blonde haired, blue eyes little pistol...just like my two boys.

This is it...the last time I will be unhealthy.

2010-05-06T08:20:00.000-07:00

I've gone and done something serious to push my motivation to get slim and healthy.

I’ve signed up to be a Beachbody Coach.

I know you’ve seen the Beachbody infomercials. Slim in 6. Turbo Jam. P90X!

I’m now selling all of the Beachbody brand of products.

I put it out there on Twitter a few weeks ago that I was looking for some kind of direct sales company to earn a little extra money. Melissa (@FITnFABinCT) tweeted back to me about checking out Beachbody. I looked at everything she sent me and thought wow, I can sell all these products that get huge publicity on TV and in the process get myself in better shape and lose weight. So let me tell you what I will be using.
I’m starting with the Shakeology Challenge. Here is an outline of the 3 day cleanse.

B: cup of green tea
    Shakeology (add one piece of fruit)
S: one piece of fruit
L: Shakeology
    Cup of green tea
S: Shakelogy
D: green salad(3 servings of veggies)
    4 oz. grilled white protein
    2 Tbsp FF dressing (use olive oil and vinegar to add healthy fats)

Drink 2-4L of water per day
No dairy

What IS Shakeology you ask? Here’s a short video that can explain that better than I can.

http://teambeachbody.com/showcase/-/bcp/29768318001

I’m really looking forward to reporting back with my results of the cleanse.

I’m also going to start a workout program using the Slim in 6 workouts.
http://teambeachbody.com/showcase/-/bcp/45346531001

My website is still a work in progress, I’m going to get my starting measurements up there soon. (that’s not nervewracking or anything).

www.beachbodycoach.com/naomisnest

If you have seen the products and want to try anything or have questions please let me help you!

If you want to do the cleanse too, then get on my website and order the Shakeology. If you want to try it out without a 30 day supply of commitment then get a couple friends to go in with you. A 30day supply order will be enough for three people to try out the cleanse (9 shakes per person).

Don't wait any longer to take control of your life and fitness...I'm not waiting any longer either!!

My diet kiss of death

2010-04-19T10:19:00.000-07:00

Everytime I start a diet. I start all gung ho, willpower in tact, ready to tackle my fat cells for the last time. Everything goes well for a few weeks. Then I start getting the comments. The nice comments.

"Have you lost weight?"
"You look great!"

Those are awesome and I really appreciate them.

But they kill me. Something inside of me says, oh, I already look good. That one cupcake won't hurt. Just one more piece of pizza. And then I'm back where I started, feeling gross, and puffy and fat.

I'm there now, trying to make a sharp U-turn though. Starting fresh today and going to MAKE myself work out everyday. At least do something to get me moving.

That's all, just a short glimpse inside my head at the moment.

Did I miss Easter?

2010-04-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

Uh no, I just keep meaning to blog about it and then get busy and forget.

The boys and I had an action packed three day weekend. Friday, we drove across town to see a friend of mine and her new sweet, adorable squishy little boy. The boys LOVE babies. And no, that does not mean I need another one.

Jack and Colton

Logan and Colton

I also got my hair chopped and glorified. I’m a blonde again, my Barbie hair is back. (no pics yet)

Then after Logan asking me 18 bajillion times if we could dye our easter eggs I finally caved. They had fun.

Getting creative

Love this color, Logan double dipped

They decided they needed to blow on them to help them dry so we could move on to phase 2, stickers.

Saturday, there was some activities for the kids at our church. The snack was a Resurrection Roll. They took a marshmallow, rolled it in butter and cinnamon/sugar, then wrapped it in a crescent roll…then more cinnamon/sugar. When they were baked and you broke into them they were empty. The marshmallow was gone, just like Jesus in the tomb.

And they were pretty tasty too.

Egg hunting at church

Sunday, we spent the day at my Aunts house and then moved to my Sister in Law’s house were all the kids were.

My mom brought confetti eggs to my Aunts.

Jack and my nephew Gage. Poor fella wasn’t feeling too hot that day.

More egg hunting.

Jack is just getting to where he will jump on the trampoline (but only by himself). He was running around in circles singing “Hosaaaanna, Hosanna in the highest” one of the songs we sang at church that morning.

Right after I pressed stop on the recording he said, “Mommy, I’m getting tired.” Wish I’d recorded just a few seconds longer, because he never stopped moving when he said that.

The boys were covered in dirt and full of sugar by the time we got home. I’d call that a success.

Bad Jokes by Logan

2010-04-04T10:22:00.001-07:00

I had to post this one before I forgot it. He said it was a Laffy Taffy joke, but I think it's too bad even for those.

What did yes say to no?

Maybe

Get it? Yes, No, maybe? Yea me neither.

LOL
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

My son, Logan

2010-04-01T08:39:00.000-07:00

This morning I had to take the boys to school because Mike had an early morning meeting. It’s usually pretty hectic because it throws the boys (and me) off our normal routine. I like to get them up extra early to counteract the whining, moaning and general craziness.

We had dropped Jack off at daycare and Logan’s school doesn’t open until 7:15am so we drove through McD’s.

We got to the school and pulled up in the drive and parked, waiting for the door. Logan got up in the front seat with me. And he just started talking. About the book he was reading, about the stuff he was doing at school. Just about a lot of stuff. It was really nice to just sit with my baby who is growing up so fast. I still remember the day he was born…and the first thoughts when I saw him.

- That’s a baby?! He’s huge! (8lbs 7 oz, 21.5inches long)
- He looks just like my Dad!

And now he’s almost 9. So close to being a teenager, as he tells me every day.

Its days like this that I stop and think of how lucky I am that I get to be HIS Mom. That God thought I was good enough for this perfect little man. It’s a lot of responsibility. I know I do things wrong. When I do I apologize to him (to Logan and God) and I tell myself to do things differently, to be better for him.
This man changed my LIFE. He makes me laugh daily. He is such a good kid so that makes me feel like I’m doing something right.

I love that he has such a goofy sense of humor. That he loves to read, just like me. That he loves his little brother so much. That he tries so hard to please us. That he is a video game-aholic. That little sprinkle of freckles across his nose and cheeks.

I love him.

a Boy and his cup

2010-03-25T09:16:00.000-07:00

My son is obsessed with his cup. Not a fancy Star Wars glass, or something with a crazy straw…his athletic cup. He’s 8. Now, I am convinced that boys getting hit in the nubs does not hurt them (as bad as they make it seem) until they are old enough to realize what’s down there. My 3yo falls and jumps on his stuff all the time and never makes a peep…but when my 8yo does it you’d think the world had ended. That’s a conversation I always have with Mike, anyway.

Yesterday, I picked the boys up from daycare and we head straight to baseball practice. Here’s a little snippet of our convo in the car…

Logan: Mom, did Dad put my cup in my bat bag?
Me: I don’t know, do you see it?
L: YES (fist pumping in the back seat ensues)
Later…

(knock, knock, knock)
L: Mom I really have to pee. Do you think I could pee without taking my cup off?
M: um, no.
L: But there is a little tiny hole here in the front.
M: No, you have to take it off…that would be pretty messy I imagine.(boys are so gross)
(knock, knock, knock)
L: Man, there’s a lot of stuff you can’t do with a cup on.

Those knocking sounds are him knocking on his cup covered crotch.

He won’t stop knocking on it when it’s on!

He says he needs to wear his cup all the time, especially when he’s playing infield.

WOW Worship

2010-03-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

The past two Sundays, Mike and I volunteered to run the WOW Worship program at our Church. It’s the children’s program that runs during church service. The kids go into church with their parents and then a few minutes in the Pastor invites them all out to WW. I was kind of nervous because it was our first time and I’m not all that knowledgeable about the bible and specific stories/events. But the coordinator, Wendy, did an amazing job at setting it all up for us with detailed instructions and a lesson written out. It was really easy and kind of fun to hear the things that the kids are thinking about God. The first week our lesson was about the Last Supper and then the second week was about Easter. There was singing and I would make a point to ask the kids what they thought about what was going on in the stories. I love kid answers to adult stories.

Oh and talking in front of a group of 3yo-3rd graders is way less nerve wracking than talking to a group of adults…cause seriously, the little ones aren’t paying so much attention to you at all times. lol

Questions for Moms/Parents

2010-03-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

I went to the Houston Rodeo and saw the Black Eyed Peas last night. I'll be the first one to tell you that this is not really my thing. I'm a Country girl to the bone. County as in music, not as in horses and cow shit. But I had a good time. It was fun and exciting probably because everyone around me was singing every word to every song. Seriously? I couldn't understand what he was saying most of the times and they were rappin right along with Will.I.Am. I do have to admit that I think I have a new crush on him. He was so gracious and thankful to all the fans and Houston for having them at the Rodeo. And he was kind of cute (maybe that was the Bud Light). I think I like artists more when they seem humble and thankful to the people who got them where they are...instead of the artists like Kanye who think they deserve everything because they are the awesome. Actually, I think I like/dislike normal people who are like that too. huh, interesting.

Some pics from last night, before it gets deep in here…

Yea, they are crap...I got a nosebleed too. :)

Anyway, as we walking around the rodeo grounds before the concert I noticed a LOT of kids by themselves. I say kids because I’m old(er) now and they all look like babies to me. Just tons and tons of kids MAYBE 13 or 14 just out there with groups of other kids the same ages and no parents. We live by a big movie theater too and all weekend there are TONS of kids out there and in the Jack in the Box in the parking lot. Just hanging out doing whatever. So I have a question for you that are reading this.

What age did you let your kids, or do you think kids are old enough to go to concerts/movies anything really by themselves with friends only? What about staying home alone or walking to/from school?

My oldest son is 8. He reminded me the other day that he’s only got 5 years until he’s a teenager. *crap* And when I think of him going somewhere like that alone my first reaction is oh hell no! Even the thought of him walking home from school by himself and staying alone until we get there kind of freaks me out. I see kids walking from the Intermediate school by our house. Those kids are between 10-12 walking down busy streets or riding bikes.

Am I just freaking out and overprotective? I work in the legal/law field and I see so much bad stuff happen to all people all the time. Am I letting that stuff get to me and sway my judgements? An I just super paranoid or what? I should mention that it makes me kind of nervous anytime I can’t physically see my children when there are people around. McDonald play places, baseball parks, parks, any place.

Let me just say that we recently moved to a neighboring city that I am extremely more comfortable in than where we came from. We live about 6 blocks from Logan’s Elementary school and the Intermediate he will go to is right next door. I just feel like bad stuff happens everywhere, even perfect towns and I want to protect my kids. I just don’t know when I’m supposed to let go.

New Feature

2010-03-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to come up with some things to post regularly because seriously, my life is not nearly exciting enough to post daily (or even every other day) about the goings on in our household. So I'm looking for a few things to post like every Monday, or whatever day just to keep y'all happy. And to explode your readers cause I know y'all love that.

Enter, Bad Jokes by Logan...

L: Mom, are you smart or dumb?
M: I'm the smartest person you will ever meet.
L: If you have a fish tank, with 8 fish in it...and you take one out. How many fish do you have?
M: In the fish tank? (I've been tricked like this before)
L: Yea (as he rolls his eyes)
M: uh, 7.
L: NO! You can't just take a fish out of a fish tank, it will DIE!

Yea, he's got a ton of these.

Spring Break in Texas

2010-03-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

Spring in Texas means one of two things for me...Rodeo Houston and bluebonnet pictures.

Today, we'll be talking about Rodeo. Bluebonnet pics to come in April.

We took the boys to the Rodeo Carnival yesterday. I was kind of thinking that it would be hella crowded but it wasn't bad at all. This was the first year that Jack really got into it and enjoyed a lot of the things we did. And boy did we do a lot!

The obligatory kids in the Rodeo Clown barrel...

The Petting Zoo...and yes, I stayed outside the pen, that's how I feel about petting zoos. Yuck!

The boys in a big green tractor (Jack loves this song by Jason Aldean, check it out here)

This boy LOVES the tractors. lol

and Cameros...he thinks these are the coolest cars ever.

We saw some chickens...and I made Logan do the chicken dance so I could use this to blackmail him later in life.

Jack loved this chicken...the chicken was running back and forth in the pen and Jack was chasing it.

Jack rode his first horse...

And Logan asked me how Cowboys rode horses all the time, cause his crotch hurt after he rode this one. LMAO.

Logan rode his first roller coaster and yes, I was freaking out a little bit inside...even though I rode it with him.

The boys rode the giant slide...

that's my boys in last place...lol

some bumper cars...all four of us were cracking up laughing during this ride

I'm really bad at taking pics of myself, I think my arms are too short. lol

a few more rides...

And then some ice cream to round out the day.

Phew! I'm tired again just from going through the pictures!

The boys had soo much fun and Logan kept saying how he was really glad we all got to spend the day together. He's such a sweetie pie when he wants to be.

And we'll just call this Rodeo week for me, cause I'll be going to see the Black Eyed Peas on Thursday!

Mad Libs

2010-03-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

Remember those games from when you were a kid? You fill out a list of nouns, adjectives, and other things and then you enter the answers into a story and hilarity ensues. Last night I went to the book store looking for a book and to pick some out for the boys. I found some Mad Libs that were related to that new movie, about dragons and vikings. How to Train your Dragon. Logan is always telling bad jokes (really bad jokes) so I thought he would get a kick out of these.

He was cracking.up. I don't know that I've ever heard him laugh that hard. Kids are so easily entertained sometimes.

So with that in mind I leave you with this...online Mad Libs.

Rainforest Cafe

2010-03-01T08:39:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went to a birthday party for a friend of ours at the Rainforest Cafe in Galveston. His name is Brayden and he turned 2. I was kind of worried about how Jack would react to all those animatronic gorillas and elephants...but he really liked it! And of course they wanted to buy everything they could touch in the gift shop. They had a build a bear in the gift shop and Logan has some weird facination with BAB. I think it's kind of weird for him to want a stuffed animal so bad (especially such an expensive one) but he ~~asks~~ begs for one everytime we are near it. Anyway, we survived the party, which was kind of hectic and crowded, and made it out of the gift shop with minimal damage. And no Build a Bear I might add.

Forgive my lack of and crappy pictures. I've been in a picture taking funk lately and just have barely even bothered. My flickr is crying over my neglect everyday.

I didn't even want to fix the red eye (that is ALWAYS) on Logan's eyeballs but I knew I would get an earful or at least an eye roll from Becky. lol

Baby showers and cake

2010-02-26T08:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday me and some of the gals at work hosted a baby shower for a good friend of ours. She is having her second child, a boy. His name will be Colton Dean. Isn't that cute? And because my favorite part of blogs are the pictures...for your viewing pleasure.

Some of the decorations (we were working with a conference room at work so we did the best we could)

I cut out all those stars by hand, holy hand cramps batman!

some of the gifts...

"Lock up your Daughters" cuteness.

And...for the hospital bag, after the baby comes. lol
And the cake.

cake by Laurie, http://www.sweetpresencebakery.com/

I found Laurie by chance and thought her cakes looked great. I was very happy when I picked up the cake and even happier when I tasted it. I used to make cakes myself so I know how much work goes into them. I have found a new bakery for all my cakes from now on. Thanks Laurie!

Food, punch, cake, friends and cute, sweet baby clothes...what more could you ask for on a Thursday afternoon at work?

Thanks to all the girls that helped. Natalie, Robin, Kris, Tammy, Maria.

And a special thanks to Becky for taking pictures so I had one less thing to do. My friend who is a professional photographer and had to make do with my crappy point and shoot. She did the best with what she had to work with. To check out her real skills hop on over to her website, blog, of Facebook page.

I have a problem

2010-02-24T07:33:00.000-08:00

I have a serious problem. I'm working hard on changing. I am obsessed with the scale. I get on it everyday. I know you aren't supposed to do that because your body fluctuates daily. But I can't stop. And it messes with my mood. If I get on and it's down from the day before I feel great all day. And probably let myself slip a little with what I eat. If I get on and it's up I feel crappy all day.

So for the past few weeks I've stayed away. I have only stepped on once a week or even once every 10 days or so.

I feel better already. The numbers are actually going down even without constant supervision from me. I've been eating better and doing my kettlebell routines every night. Even when the numbers weren't going down when I was on it everyday I felt like my clothes were fitting better and my stomach was a little smaller. That's why those numbers where screwing with my head. I felt like I was looking better, but that number said I was the same or worse.

I'm trying to break this chain that the scale has on me. I'm feeling better about it every day.

And for the first time in a long time I actually WANT to do this. I want to eat healthier. I want to fit back into my clothes. I think it's partly because I know I'm done having babies. I think before I just was kind of in the mindset that if I got pregnant again then all my hard work would go down the tubes. I know a lot of people stay healthy and all baby when they are pregnant, but not me...I gain weight EVERYWHERE.

So the first step is admitting you have a problem. I'm moving on.

Sleeping Beauty...err, Prince.

2010-02-18T06:59:00.000-08:00

So my youngest son, Jack, is a horrible sleeper. He is 3. I vaguely remember a time when he was younger that he just laid down in his crib with his blankie and monkey and drifted off to a peaceful slumber. Then he got sick. He's had respiratory problems since he was 4 months old and had pneumonia. Since then he's been on and off the nebulizer with different meds and such. He seems like he's growing out of it, not getting sick so often as he gets older which is a great thing. But he got into a routine where he would take his breathing treatment at night, fall asleep on it, and then we'd carry him to his bed. He'd wake up in the middle of the night and come to our room and we were so out of it that we'd just let him get in bed with us.

Since he's been well for quite some time now (no coughing, etc.) I've been trying to wean him off and get him to sleep in his own bed.

My husband on the other hand, seems to always succumb to his tactics and end up sitting by his bedside waiting for him to fall asleep. (grrrrrrr)

A few weeks ago (superbowl sunday in fact), I told him if he wanted to stay up and watch the football game then he would need to take a nap. He walked into his room in the middle of the day, laid down and fell asleep. This kid loves him some football obviously.

So I got to thinking that it was time to start the weaning process again.

Two nights ago, he just went into his room and went to sleep all alone. I was pumped.

Then last night he started crying about wanting candy, not liking his bed, not wanting to be a big boy, etc. Anything to keep from going to bed. We got him laughing and then he started telling us how candy makes his muscles big and strong...that's why he needed more.

*light bulb*

me: You know what else makes your muscles grow big and strong?
J: What?
m: There are a few things. Vegetables, milk, exercise, candy and REST. Have you had all those things today?
J: I had candy. And milk, and exercise.
m: Did you have vegetables at school today?
J: yes
m: So there's only one thing left you need to grow big muscles. REST. That means you have to go to sleep in your bed.

Like magic, he was off to his bed. And fell asleep all by himself again...for the second night in a row!

Pray that this phenomenon continues.

In case you talk to my husband before Sunday...

2010-02-10T12:59:00.000-08:00

Here's what I want for Valentine's day...Pandora bracelet

With this...

And a few more eventually...I know we aren't made of money...

And this one would be perfect for Valentine's day too...because he holds the key to my heart, and always will...

and a few of these too, while he's shopping...

And these for the kids...

Thanks for looking and don't forget to mention how much I would love a Pandora bracelet for Valentine's day...oh and that if he doesn't buy it, I'll just go buy it myself...and I'll pick up a doghouse for him while I'm out.

I'm on a roll huh?

2010-02-05T09:31:00.000-08:00

So all of a sudden this week I decided that I wanted to get some things done around the house because tonight I'm hosting a bunco party. Tomorrow, Mike is playing Poker at the house with his friends. And then Sunday we are having people over for the Superbowl.

The room I'm most focused on is the guest/boys bathroom, because obviously, besides the living room where the TV is at, this will be the most viewed room this weekend. Here's a pic of the bathroom when we moved in, partially remodeled by the previous owners.

Okay, so I thought I had a better before picture...oh well.

The mirrors are not hung and all the fixtures are that brushed nickel color. I'm more of an oil rubbed bronze kind of girl myself so...here's what we've done.

This is the light fixture that was hanging in between the mirrors.

With a little help from my new best friend...

Whala!

It's really hard to get good pictures when you are doing home improvement projects at 10 o'clock at night!
I spray painted all the cabinet handles/knobs too.

And the only pics I got of the mirrors are on my phone...bad bad blogger!

We painted the walls a few months ago...Toffee Crunch is the color and I <3 it!

I'm off today to get some rugs, maybe a new shower curtain(even though we don't use this shower/tub AT ALL, but that's a whole other story)...I can't decide if I want to go bold with red or more subtle with a robin's egg blue color as an accent.

Attacked by the Glue Gun Monster

2010-02-04T14:25:00.000-08:00

Last night was a craft extravaganza at my house. I was working on some Valentine decorations for the house. Logan was working on his valentine box for school. And Jack just had to make a valentine box too just like Bubba.

Everything went downhill when I was attacked by the dreaded Glue Gun Monster. I was wrapping fabric around a heart shaped wreath form and that fabric got a hold of a hunk of hot glue and wrapped itself around my hand. I did the "I'm burning my flesh off" dance over to the sink and put it under some water.

Man that sucker hurt for the longest time, and I think I have a pretty high pain tolerance. I sprayed some Dermoplast on there and took some Advil and went to bed to sleep off the pain. Today I'm rewarded with big nasty blister on the side of my middle finger. The crazy part is that I'm still itching to finish that project but I'm a little gun shy(pun intended). So we'll see if Mike can pull it off for me tonight...with my excellent tutalage of course.

Crafts and LOST

2010-02-03T07:59:00.000-08:00

If you are living under a rock (or aren't a LOSTie, how could you?!) and didn't know, last night was the premier episode of the last season of LOST. I must admit I didn't get into the whole crazy LOST thing until a few seasons in. But once I did, I went back and watched them all...and was even more confused. It's that show that you watch and at the end of the hour you have maybe 2 answers to the 100's of questions you had before the show...and then 100 more questions about what when on in that hour! But I'm hooked and I love it.

Thanks to the miracle of DVR, I started watching last night about 30 minutes into the first hour (which was a recap of the past 5 seasons). So I didn't catch up to live TV until the last 5 minutes or so...it was awesome.

Have I mentioned that I love my DVR?

Anyway, to make myself feel better about neglecting my family and locking myself into the bedroom for 2 hours before the kids went to bed, I decided to work on a project that I've had sitting around stewing for a while.

My parents are remodeling/redecorating their house. Score for me, because we are getting all the stuff they aren't using anymore. Much to my husband's dismay when we leave their house with a car load full of "junk" every weekend. :)

Mom gave me these lamps from their bedroom.

The base is really pretty, it's a kind of yellow/amberish color...and the shade, well, not really my our style at all. So this is what they turned into.

That's burlap folks. I've been hoarding all the burlap I can find lately because of all the projects I find online. So I finally whipped some out along with my trusty glue gun. I still need to put some trim on the inside of the shade to cover up the edges of the burlap but I couldn't wait to put something on here...since I've neglected the blog for so long lately.

I'm on a house kick lately. It's about time I got my butt in gear again!

More projects to come soon!

Who loves ya?

2010-02-02T10:57:00.000-08:00

I found this totally AWESOME idea for handmade Valentine cards while I was blog surfing the other day. (hello google reader, how did I ever live without you?)

So this is what I spent part of last night doing...

Want a closer look?

These were super easy and not too time consuming...the part that took the longest was sending the pics to a local photo lab, driving out of my way to pick them up, them not being there because I apparently forgot to press send. Then driving home, resending them, and sending Mike to pick them up an hour later. :)

I found the idea here, which came from here originally. Thanks for the ideas ladies! You are now a fixture in my google reader.

Blokus

2010-01-12T07:57:00.000-08:00

We bought this new game last week. To say I'm addicted is a little bit of an understatement. It reminds me of Tetris. I love Tetris. I used to play Tetris so much that when I would close my eyes I would see little square blocks floating around and try to connect them in my head. And then comes this...

BTW, that one of the games that I won. I kick ass. I'm red.

You start with 21 of those little Tetris type pieces. You start laying them down in the corner and you have to lay all your pieces out corner to corner. If you go out and lay all 21 of your pieces you are the master blokus(that's me).

It's probably not healthy, but I can't stop playing. The good part is that we can play as a family. Even Jack likes putting his little pieces on the board.

Rock Star

2010-01-08T11:03:00.000-08:00

One of my good friends just moved to South Carolina. She left yesterday. I miss her already.

She was one of those people that you are automatically drawn too. She is so friendly and outgoing and funny. We became really close when she started here, our desks were a foot away from each other. Then we started carpooling together and that's when it solidified. We would talk forever about anything and everything. People in our lives that were crazy, people at work that were crazy. When we stopped carpooling my drives to and from work were just boring and I had to amuse myself by singing at the top of my lungs again.

She started dating this guy that she met through work. They dated for 6 months and it ended when he broker her jaw on a trip to Florida. She had to jump out of the car and run to a gas station to call 911. She moved away to start fresh and to get away from him. I hate that she had to leave to feel safe again but I totally get it. It doesn't make my heart any less sad that she is gone.

We all went out to a local bar this past weekend to just send her out of Texas right. I took tons of pictures. Retarded pictures. And I made her a little gift to take a piece of us back with her. Here it is:

This is totally her. All night long everyone was throwing up the devil horns. Over on the left, if you can't read it, says "it's never to late to be a rock star".

Please excuse the crap picture. I was trying to get a pic before I gave it to her!

Crochet Giveaway...from Inner Hooker

2010-01-07T11:00:00.000-08:00

If you crochet and would like to win some adorable free patterns, go check out this contest over at Inner Hooker. Can I just say I love "hooker" names associated with crocheting...it just gives me a little chuckle every time I see them.

http://oxfordfam.blogspot.com/2010/01/ucreate-feature-and-giveaway.html

Later folks!

Ten weeks to healthy in 2010

2010-01-04T16:41:00.000-08:00

So I've signed up for this Ten in 10 Challenge. It's a challenge to get healthy throughout the next ten weeks(and beyond). You can check out the details here.

Recipe Girl 10 in 10 details

It technically started on Saturday January 2, 2010 but it was too hard for me to start when our schedule was still so crazy with no school. So I started today. I did pretty well if I do say so myself. One of my coworkers even brought a HUGE tub of homemade cookies today and they sat in front of my desk all day. I didn't even have a tiny crumb of a broken one. None at all. Big props for me, sugar/cookies/sweets are my weakness.

So we'll see how it goes.

It's time for a change

2009-12-31T09:26:00.001-08:00

I changed up my blog name and my layout and background. I'm still working on it. I figure I will just start posting my pictures smaller (it's still cutting off the right side) and that will fix that. I mainly wanted to get my full name off my address and get things a little more cohesive.

I am going to "attempt" to get started making cards for sale. A lot of people at work are asking me about it, I've just got to make sure I keep it away from work so I don't get in trouble around here.

I set up an etsy shop a long time ago, basically when I started looking on etsy...but I've never put anything in it. So I'm going to see about getting that started up too.

So stay tuned!

Countdown to a healthier me

2009-12-30T12:43:00.000-08:00

So yes, this post is about probably the most famous new year's resolution ever. To lose weight. And please don't go to my archives and notice that I probably made the same resolution last year.

This time I have a goal. It always helps to have a goal right?

We just won a free photo session in the bluebonnets in April from my favorite photographer here in Houston <3 ya Sabrina!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/southerngracephoto?ref=mf

www.southerngracephotography.com

She took our family pics back in September and I had these pics taken.

http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?&id=78659669270&s=12&hash=77daf3784d03048d7ddc4af0d067ba98#/photo.php?pid=2368907&id=78659669270

I love the idea, had the pictures printed and just can't stand to put them on the walls because I look so lumpy in them. So come April I want her to redo these(I'm sure she's excited about that) so I can hang the pics and not feel like I'm hanging a picture of a cow next to my kids.

So April 17th. 15 weeks to lose close to 30 lbs? I know it can technically be done safely (2lbs/week baby!) so we'll see if I can pull it off.

Keep your fingers crossed and a random email/message/FB post/Twitter note to stay away from the sweets is kindly appreciated! I respond well to threats.

Thanks.

Live Nativity and Christmas hayride

2009-12-21T09:04:00.000-08:00

Every year our church hosts a Live Nativity play and then a hayride where we drive through the surrounding neighborhoods singing carols and looking at Christmas lights. This year was Jack's first year to be old enough to participate in the Nativity play.

He was so excited about being a Shepherd. Once he got dressed up he was walking around telling everyone, "My name is Jackson, I'm a shepherd." He was so cute!

He has a little bit of a phobia about large animals, dogs, any animal really. So I kept talking to him and telling him that he was going to have to go into the pen with the pigs, goats, chickens, ponies. He said he was okay, he wanted to be a shepherd. So I left Logan in charge of Jack and Peyton and getting them from the inside of the church to the nativity set.

As soon as Peyton saw her Dad she took off for him with Logan chasing behind her dragging her back. So now, they are all walking in line again, and as soon as Jack got to the gate to the pen and saw the animals he stopped dead in his tracks...tripping up the rest of the line behind him. He backed up and started walking away...I had to get up from my seat and stop him. There was no WAY he was going in there with those animals. lol

Maybe next year he'll make it into the pen. :)

Here's some pics from the hayride.

And I just can't decide which group shot is the best...

Sheesh...

Working on a new background

2009-12-14T10:22:00.001-08:00

I can't find one I like that doesn't chop off my pictures. Maybe I need to post smaller pictures? Please bear with me during the transition.

Monogrammed tote bag purse

2009-12-11T10:35:00.000-08:00

I'm linking up to Infarrantly Creative's Pennywise party. I've never done this before so hopefully I'm doing it right!

I've got a ton of nieces and nephews! Unfortunately, I don't see a whole lot of them very often. Mostly just once or twice a year at family get togethers. I've got four girls all around the ages of 5-8. This is what I came up with as a gift for them. They are filled with little tubes of glitter, bath soap, lip gloss and makeup for all the girls.

I used the little quilting blocks of material. (Fat Quarters I think they are called) They were 79 cents each on Black Friday! I used one pattern for the outside and a coordinating pattern on the inside. So they are technically reversible, but the letters are only on the outside. The pattern I found one day while surfing and when I got ready to make them couldn't find the same one again so I just went by memory. They are basically just little tote bag/purses. The letters are felt and are glued on with fabric glue. Ribbon as handles. :)

So each one costs me less than $3, using some ribbon I already had. That's not counting the inside stuff but all that was from the dollar stores.

I can't wait to see their faces. I think they will really like them!

Now to just figure something out for the boys!

I need one of these...

2009-11-06T08:15:00.001-08:00

OMG.

How long do you think it would take me to talk Mike into making one of these???

http://www.lowescreativeideas.com/idea-library/projects/Craft_Table_0708.aspx

Life=Crazy

2009-11-01T19:22:00.000-08:00

I'm gonna post something a little longer tomorrow. My computer is going s-u-p-e-r s-l-o-w tonight so I just got this one pic from this weekend edited.

I love these guys so much!!

Fall decorating

2009-10-15T10:15:00.000-07:00

So I finally got some of my fall decor out and set up. I found this idea on another blog, of course I read so many of them that I can't remember where I saw it. But here's my version...

and here's a pic of my collection of pumpkins...it keeps growing as I find more unique ones everyday.

Weekend baking

2009-10-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

I decided to try out some cookies I've been drooling over for a few weeks. I got the recipe here...

http://picky-palate.com/2009/09/14/white-chocolate-cinnamon-toast-crunchers/

Here's how mine came out...

They are DELICIOUS! I had to make myself go to bed last night so I would stop eating them! I brought them to work and have so far resisted them. But I'm sure by the time those 3 pm munchies hit I'll attack what is left.

Fall wreath

2009-10-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

So I got another project (almost) off my to do list.

In the midst of all my decor/craft blog reading, I stumbled upon a bunch of fall wreaths and decided our new house needed a fall wreath. So I went to my home away from home (Hobby Lobby) and picked up these things...

And this is how it turned out...

I haven't decided which end is up so I was trying to get some different shots of it.

I hot glued everything to the wreath. I think I'll use some ribbon to hang it on the door. I bought the raffia and wire and I didn't even end up using them.

wreath = $2 (orig $3.99, 1/2 off)
flowers = $10 (orig $19.99, 1/2 off)
yellow babys breath thingys = $3.50 (orig $6.99, 1/2 off)

I looked at some wreaths at HL while I was getting all this and they were priced at $50-$70!

One down, 867 to go...

2009-09-24T07:12:00.000-07:00

So that piece of furniture I found on craigslist yesterday was already sold. Bummer.

Anywho...here is one of the fall projects I've been working on.

Faux Mercury Glass Pumpkins

I got the idea/inspiration from this blog...

http://thediyshowoff.blogspot.com/2009/09/week-1-diy-show-off-fall-festival.html

I think they turned out pretty awesome. Now I just need somewhere to put them.

Hopefully we can get some landscaping/clean up done in the front yard this weekend so I can show off another project!

Projects in Que

2009-09-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

I've been searching all day (in person and online) for a short, long, skinny side table or dresser of some sort for my entryway. The few antique stores and thrift stores I visited were way overpriced. I think I might have found something on craigslist. Now I'm waiting to hear back from the seller. They just listed it yesterday so hopefully they haven't sold it. I'm super excited about it so I'm gonna be bummed if that happens. I'm not even sure if it will work like I want for the space but it's such a good deal that if it doesn't work then I'll use it somewhere else.

When I told Mike about it he asked if this is the last project we'd be starting before we finished the rest of the ones we have?

I told him that was a silly question.

Of course not! lol

I'm hoping to post some pics of one of my finished (semi finished projects) tomorrow.

A little bit of color

2009-09-22T09:06:00.000-07:00

So we've got this huge wonderful new king size bed. My super garage sale find of a sleigh bed frame to lift it up. And some super boring shams the color of the bedspread.

Then last week I was strolling down the clearance aisle at Wally World and found these cute pillows on clearance. Actually I found a whole treasure trove of stuff on clearance...but I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's our new bed after $12 worth of pillow awesomeness!

So I guess I've inadvertently picked the color palette for our bedroom.

I'm in the midst of lots of fall/halloween projects that will be coming soon!

Home Improvement projects

2009-08-17T12:08:00.000-07:00

So we are finally past the house nightmare.

Here are a few pics of some of the projects we've started in the new house.

new king size bedframe...before:

after:

This bed is heaven. and huge. Our first king size bed.

Living room/den walls before:

that paneling is what we are focusing on here

during:

Still waiting on a complete after photo...we still have to get the crown molding up.

Mike's off today and working on changing out our interior doors...they were old flat ones and we are replacing them with the nicer 6 paneled ones.

More to come..stay tuned.

Fishing at the park

2009-06-30T06:52:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went to a nearby park and did a little fishing. Our church was hosting a Family Fun Day at the park and we all had a lot of fun, despite the hotness that has taken over Houston this past week. (We've have temps in the 3 digits for the past week solid!) Here's some of the pics...I had to hijack my friends camera because mine died like 2 minutes after we got there (horror!).

Mike and Logan baiting the hook...Jack eagerly looking on

Logan luring the duck with a piece of bread...do you see that look on his face?! lol

Jackson and Peyton

My little studmuffin...with Lana

Peyton and Chris

Jack caught the biggest fish...on the smallest pole.

Peyton, she did NOT want to touch those worms...lol

My little fisherman

Logan's fish

How freaking cute are they together?!

Packing...

2009-06-24T08:05:00.000-07:00

I think we are going to need to pack soon. That's Mike's plan for his day off next week. To pack up the stuff we won't need until after we move. I'm kind of nervous about packing cause I know as soon as we pack something up I'm going to need it for some random odd reason. He said he was going to pack up all my clothes except for 7 outfits, one for everyday of the week. Yea right! He can do that with his clothes, not mine. lol A friend of ours is going to let us borrow his truck too...I'm a little excited about having access/driving a truck again. I know Mike misses his truck and I do sometimes. There is just something about driving a vehicle that no one cuts you off in and that has a horn that doesn't sound like a squeeky toy(the Toyota). Ahh...big trucks.

Better get back to work...on the farm that is.

My newest addiction, Farmtown on Facebook. OMG.

Round 14 or so with Citihomes and the crappiest realtor on the block...

2009-06-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

So once again, just when things were starting to settle down and work out for us good ole Keith Griffin and Citihomes throws a wrench in our plans. I have never in my life had to deal with so many unethical, unprofessional, liars, cheaters and all around crumbags as the people with Citihomes realty.

They still have the survey that we furnished them for our file while we were under contract with them. Our new realtors have been trying to get it back, because it BELONGS TO US.

Everyday Keith Griffin tells her he is emailing it, he was just about to email it, etc. And of course, everything that comes out of his mouth is a straight up, bold faced LIE. Now he is willing to "trade" OUR survey for the citihomes sign. The one that he told us to put out by our garage and he would send someone to pick it up the weekend after we terminated our contract. The one that has been sitting by our garage door everyday for a month since. The one that just "happens" to be gone the one day he says that someone came by to get it.

I keep having to edit and revise my complaint letter to TRAC because everytime he breathes he does something else to try to screw us over and he and Mary Rothenberg don't know how to speak without lying.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Logan's birthday party

2009-06-17T13:38:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Logan's birthday party this past weekend. We have always had a pool party since it's in the middle of summer and HOT. This weekend was no exception...it was a scorcher!! Here's some pics...

oh yea!

put on your sunglasses...

this one cracks me up...don't they look like they are up to something??

Logan's summer haircut...

30

2009-06-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

I have a birthday rapidly approaching. I know it's just a number and there are so many things to be grateful for in my life...and that I only have that many more things to look forward to. But it's still hitting me hard. I think for my birthday I just want to be alone and cry.

Logan's growing up and getting wise to the ways of the world...

2009-06-11T10:06:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, we were driving past some of the chemical plants on our side of town. You know the ones where there are random flames and smoke stacks blowing smoke into the air. Logan was probably 4 at the time. As we were driving by one of the plants that was blowing smoke in the air, he said, "Mom look, that's a cloud plant. It's making clouds." Such a cute and funny kid thing to say...I just laughed and said yep, they sure are.

Then the other day we were driving past this same plant and he tells me. "Mom, those plants aren't making clouds. They are putting pollution into our air." Oh my, how he's grown. Mike told him that it was actually just steam so it wasn't really pollution. But man, I'm not ready for my kid to grow up and know about pollution and such wordly things as that. I want him to be a kid and like to look at the Cloud Plants.

Logan's 8th birthday...part 2

2009-06-09T12:24:00.000-07:00

So Friday night we took Logan to the Astros game as part of his birthday present. Me and him went to the ballpark early to hang out and walk around. He wanted to go play in the Squeeze Play before the game got started so we headed that way. When we got there, there was a cameraman asking if some of the kids wanted to be "Squeeze Play kids" and get to be in video that would play on the big screen in the park. So he taped Logan running the bases and we got to see him waving and running on the huge tv before the game started! He was sooo excited about that...of course I wasn't ready so I just got video of him running away...and I'm so not blogger educated to add a video to this. So, onto the rest of the night.

He got to eat all his favorite stuff at the ballpark, cheese pizza, popcorn, frozen lemonade and ice cream in a helmet. We got to see Carlos Lee hit a Grand Slam (and some lucky punk in the audience won $25,000 because of it)! During the game they will flash people's names across the jumbotron with messages, like Happy Anniversary/Birthday etc. And then we saw this...

After we were done whooping and hollering for Logan's birthday wishes on the screen, the guy sitting behind us gave Logan $5 for his birthday! See there are still genuinely nice people in this world...

We capped off the night with some fireworks after the game...

We had a lot more fun this weekend and this week I'll be frantically getting stuff ready for Logan's birthday party on Saturday.

Logan's birthday...so far...

2009-06-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

Logan has one heck of a birthday celebration this past week. It started on his actual birthday, June 4th, when we went out to dinner with Mike's family to celebrate all of our June birthdays. My sister in law, Laci, on the 3rd, Logan on the 4th, Mike's brother Aaron on the 5th and Mike's on the 9th. That's one busy week in the Lines family, huh?! We had planned on going to Joe's Crab Shack in Kemah and then letting the kids play on the boardwalk while we enjoyed the band. Then when I was leaving work I got a call that Joe's was on fire! So change of plans, and we ended up at Ichibon...which in my opinion is way better!

Logan working the chopsticks

Jack working his chopsticks...lol

Jack drinking Miso soup with a straw...

The June birthday celebratees...

Then some fun in the water with a few of the cousins...

I'll end this post here at the end of Birthday Celebration day number 1 so it's not 7 pages long...

to be continued...

Those things that make your blood boil...

2009-06-04T09:28:00.000-07:00

So I've written a letter to the Texas Real Estate Commission to complain on our former jerk of a realtor, Keith Griffin. I've posted a little about it on here but not too much because I'm waiting to post the letter in it's entirety and I'm a little afraid of screwing something up with the house stuff until we have signed the dotted lines and are standing in our new house with the keys. I've kind of just gotten past it, trying not to think of it much because it's in the past and we are moving on. Then out of the blue I get an email from someone who found my blog by searching "Keith Griffin Citihomes reviews."

You can also find my blog my googling "Citihomes sucks", just in case you were wondering.

So I'm a little weary of spilling my guts still for that fear that something will go wrong and I'll say the wrong thing.

Then I get a text from my friend who left Citihomes...Keith Griffin basically STOLE over $2000 from her for past referrals and sales she made when she was at Citihomes. Real peach of a guy huh?

So then I opened up a chat with this guy that emailed me to let him know what problems we had with KG. He said he's having the SAME problems. Who says people learn from their mistakes? Apparently KG thinks that we are just one little person and one little commission and he doesn't give a damn. Well, word of mouth is spreading like wildfire...

Nicole's Wedding shower

2009-06-03T14:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend was my cousin's wedding shower...I hope everyone had a good time. I did. And I got to hang out and just talk with my friend Shirley cause she helped us out with the food and came to the shower too. It's been a long time since I just got to sit down and chat with an old friend. Here's some pics from the shower...

Mom, me, Nicole and Aunt Susan

the cookie buffet...Shirley made ALL these cookies. She is a machine, a wonderful, well oiled baking machine! I think it turned out awesome!!

Nicole got a panini press...

and another one...

and one more just in case...

LOL

I'm excited for her to get married...her fiance is a great guy and she totally deserves him!
I'm also excited about the bachelorette party and getting away (Austin prob) for the weekend. Yay for weekends with no kids/spouses...I am in serious need of a girls weekend.

Bowling record

2009-06-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

Oh yea...

My newest hobby

2009-05-27T10:16:00.001-07:00

At the end of last year a new small group started up at my church. Blankets and Blessings is a group of ladies that get together and crochet(a few of them prefer to knit) lap blankets that are taken to a local hospice and given to new patients and their families when they arrive. The hospice group we work with is VITAS and they are all over the Houston area. They do so many things to help the families get through the difficult process of watching their loved ones slip away to a better place.

I had never crocheted before in my life. I remember my grandma always doing it and I wish that I had asked her to show me before she died. So I started learning and it just kind of took off from there. I am always on the search for new cool (not old and grandma-ish) patterns and things to try. I've finished a few blankets for the group and also made a few things for friends and family. Here's a few of the things I've made. I wish I had pictures of some other things I've already given away...

baby blanket...it matched her brown/white polka dotted bedding

sundress...this involved sewing also, which is NOT my strong suit...

Logan's basketball hat...horrible pic

So, that's my newest obsession...

Long weekends...

2009-05-26T11:36:00.000-07:00

We had a great Memorial day weekend. We didn't have any plans...just hung around the house, playing outside and getting dirty. What little boys are best at.

Apparently, eating a lunchable is dangerous work...please wear your hard hats.

my sweeties...

How can you stay mad after this?

2009-05-22T09:34:00.000-07:00

So Logan stayed home from school yesterday because he was up sick all night. Towards the afternoon he started feeling better (I know this because he inhaled 2 corn dogs and a ton of chips) so we went to rent a video game. We had to vacate the house for a showing so we took our Wii game and board and went to my Mom's to play and visit. After a few games he started getting pissed off when he was losing, so I told him to stop throwing a fit or the game was getting turned off. I gave him a few more chances and then I got tired of it...and I turned off the game just like I said. This started an even bigger fit of screaming and crying so I just told him to go cool it off and sit at the kitchen table until he was done being ugly.

Then I hear him tell my Mom that he wants to go make me an "I'm sorry" card in her scrap room. So away he goes. This is what he brings me in two seperate trips...

The white puzzle pieces are the first trip...the colored ones are the second trip. Wanna know what they say???

This kid cracks me up daily...seriously.

Oh, and I definitely laughed...but he still didn't play the Wii the rest of the night.

Baseball playoffs...2009

2009-05-20T08:27:00.001-07:00

So Logan's baseball team made it to the playoffs. Last night was their first game and boy was it a doozie. We won, 11-5. It was a tough game but I'm so proud of ALL the boys for how hard they played and no matter what happened they kept playing hard. There were some iffy plays that got called in our favor and boy, you have never seen adults act more like children then when watching a little league game. The adults in the stands were yelling at the umpires and at the end the coaches were yelling and talking smack to them also.(the other team) Never a good idea. And we play this same team again tonight. Logan got a hit every at bat and ran as fast as I think I've ever seen him run in baseball. After the game he told me that Nathan told him a secret to running faster, you gotta move your arms like this (pumping his arms). I told him it worked...lol. He even slid into a couple bases. He made a couple of really good plays. It was just an all around awesome game. Hopefully, we can pull it out tonight again and go on to the championship round next week. On the way home, we were talking about the game and the different plays. Logan was talking about one kid that missed the ball and I told him that he didn't give up, he came back and got the next ball that came his way...and that's all you can do. Everyone is gonna miss the ball sometimes, you just have to get it the next time, or the next time after that. He said yea, and the #1 rule in baseball is to have fun. We have super awesome coaches to thank for that attitude on baseball. Every game they make the boys want to play and have fun. Isn't that what it's all about? What everything should be about?

Go Sooners!

Wow...Citihomes Realty.

2009-05-18T11:36:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a letter to send to the Texas Real Estate Commission...and I'll post it everywhere I can in cyberspace too. But first I need to get all the information I need from then, because I can just imagine how helpful they will be once they know I filed a complaint against them. Stay tuned...

House for sale?

2009-05-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

So if you are ever thinking of selling your home, or buying a home...do NOT list with Citihomes Realty or use an agent/broker named Keith Griffin. Trust me, you will regret it and it will stress you out until you have him and the entire company out of your life. Which I am glad to say, we are now free of Keith Griffin and Citihomes...we at least on May 17, 2009 at 11:59pm when our listing is terminated. And word of mouth is a bitch...just like me. I have plans.

Astros and Mother's Day

2009-05-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

This past Mother's day weekend, Logan, Mike and I went to the Astros game. They had the little league parade around the field and after the game the Mom's got to run the bases (with the kids). Here's some pics from our fun filled day.

during the parade

cool angle

The boys singing the national anthem

crossing home plate

The boys had a blast...they always do at the parade game.

The house

2009-05-12T11:05:00.001-07:00

So I've avoided talking too much about this on here for fear that something would go wrong...Friday something went wrong(again) so what the hell?

To understand my full saga of house selling I feel like I need to go back to the beginning so I'm going to just do this list style and throw in some dates the best I can remember.

-March: our house officially goes on the market...online and all, gets lots of showings, lots of attention...everything is starting out great.

-April: first official offer on the table, full price offer, awesome! we snatch it up.

-Good Friday: the day AFTER we accept the offer and the date of the inspection, buyer cancels the offer. She finally looked at the sellers disclosure and freaked out that our house had 2 inches of water during Tropical Storm Allison in 2001. You might remember it, the entire city of HOUSTON was underwater.

-April: still showing the house, still getting lots of traffic...still truckin

-end of April/beginning of May: crazy lady interested, wants to know if there are foundation issues. We have an inspection and of course, there are, $2,000 worth. No problem, we pay to have the work done and get a lifetime warranty transferable to any new owner. Crazy lady is too crazy and asking for tons of little stuff to be done before she even puts in an offer, forget her. Two other offers come in, back and forth, we tell them both to give us their best offer and we will pick one. Offer A comes back and has DEFINITE financing, Offer B comes in about $400 more but is only pre-approved. We choose Offer A because of the financing and start looking for our new home. In the middle of all this, my friend, our realtor changes companies, so now we have a throwdown realtor handling the sale of our house. (and he's a realllll piece of work, let me tell you!)

-May: we look at a house we've had our eye on for a while, over our price range but we are willing to stretch. we make a full price offer and the seller comes back wanting $5,000 more and changes his list price online to reflect that. We pass and keep looking. Find house #2 in nice neighborhood, close to us now so the kids can stay at the daycare we love. Make an offer a little lower than our (new) max so we have room to negotiate...seller is "insulted" by our offer and comes back with a riduculous offer we pass on. Keep looking, keep looking...not finding ANYTHING in the area we want to stay in. Start branching out to Pearland, Clear Lake, after a meltdown I decide that I don't want to move away so we decide to stick it out, maybe stay with the rents for a while if our house sells and we don't find anything in time. Finally, we find the house. Under budget(the original budget, not the inflated one), older home(that's what I wanted), needs a little work but I'm all gung ho and excited about it. Love the area, the seller is desperate to sell and willing to fix everything we ask him to.

-May 8: (close date set for may 20th) buyers for our house do something to screw up their credit score(after they've already paid for an inspection and appraisel on our house)...they don't LOSE their financing but the interest rate jumps up and they decide to cancel their offer. Now they are trying to get their earnest money back because they say they can't get financing...our throwdown realtor says no, you have financing you just don't want to pay for it. So now we wait, push back the close on the new home and hope we can find another buyer for our house.

I know there are positives that I should be focused on...and really, I'm beyond the point of being upset...I'm just indifferent I think. So anyway, since not saying anything on the blog didn't help things go smoothly maybe if I lay it all out there things will start to go our way. I'm convinced this house is the one we are going to buy, but if it doesn't happen it won't be the first time I was wrong.

Trouble

2009-05-08T08:05:00.000-07:00

So this past week has been really hard on Logan. I don't know what the deal is but he's gotten in trouble at school and daycare everyday this week.

Monday, he snuck the DS to school and got caught by the daycare teacher. He's been told at least 152 times that he is not allowed to take the DS to school and/or daycare. And he was on blue at school.
Tuesday, on yellow.
Wednesday, on ORANGE!
Thursday, on RED!!

Their school has a color coded conduct system. Everyday the clip with their name starts at green. If they don't get in trouble or get one warning, it stays on green. Two warnings and a conduct mark is yellow, two conduct marks is orange, red is a call to the parents, and purple is a trip to the principals office.

So he was one step away from going to the principal's office. And it was all over a bunch of little stuff that he knows better...playing, and talking, and throwing things in class.

So today his teacher is moving him to another set of desks. So hopefully he can start behaving better.

His teacher did say something that made me feel a little better. She told me that even when he knows he is going to be in trouble he always tells her the truth. She said he knows how to behave and she thinks moving him will help. So we'll see what happens today. He's been grounded from video games (for taking the DS to school) and then grounded from anything fun (for the colorful conduct reports this week) and I told him if he comes home on anything other than green today he won't be going with us to the Astros game on Sunday. I really hope he straightens up because I really don't want him to miss the game. It stinks having to threaten punishments that you don't want to follow through on...but I didn't know what else to do to get through to him.

Closed for remodeling...

2009-05-07T07:39:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to make my blog all decked out...and blogger is not cooperating. I'm gonna try again later.

I've got lots of house news too but I'm a little superstitious about posting about it in case something goes wrong. Soon though, very soon.

My very own strong man...

2009-05-06T09:39:00.000-07:00

Check out the latest contestant in the World's Strongest Man Competition...

Here he is doing the car lift...

...

I think he's outgrown the car, just a bit!

Family Reunion in the country

2009-05-05T12:44:00.000-07:00

So this weekend we had our annual Johnson Family Reunion in Deadwood, TX. Yes, that is really the name of the town. So Mike, Jack and I left Friday night and my parents left a little earlier with Logan. We got in very late and everyone was asleep so when we woke up the next morning around 9, I went looking for Logan. Everyone was still asleep and my grandpa was sitting at the kitchen table. He said Logan was already at the pond fishing. (the kid has been talking about fishing for 2 weeks and spent all last weekend practicing his casting in the backyard). So I get dressed to go find him and this is what I see at the pond...

Oh yea, that's my kid...the city kid, who couldn't even put all his clothes on before he took off for the "fishin hole". But as the day progresses, I start to hear more stories. The guys that were up all night manning the BBQ pit said it was way before 7 and they heard my grandpa coming up the lane on his 4 wheeler...and then they see a blonde boy running up the lane after him, waving his arms screaming and wearing only underwear and tennis shoes. Thankfully my grandpa made him go back to the trailer and put on some pants. Logan was the talk of the reunion. They all said the apple didn't fall far from that tree! They all knew he belonged to my Grandpa! lol

Oh yea, can't wait to tell the future girlfriends this story.

Both the boys had a blast though...Logan had the record for biggest fish (5 inches) for a long while, until someone caught a catfish. Here's some more pics of the fishing and other shenanigans...

Jack could barely hold the pole up...and he got mad when I tried to help him!

Ewww...gross!

Boy Meets Worm

Logan getting his "catch" off the line...yea, that's a fish. lol

We went ahead and came home Saturday night instead of Sunday morning because the news was talking about a big thunder and tornado storm sweeping through in the wee hours...

Love visiting family and getting away from the city...but definitely DON'T want to get stuck in East Texas!

House hunting...

2009-03-21T15:44:00.000-07:00

For a while now we've been looking at houses online...just to see what's out there. And every week after church we get the boys some donuts and drive around looking for neighborhoods we like and houses that might be for sale. It seems like we've been doing this for so long now and all the while we've been getting our house ready to sell. After a heart to heart with our realtor and loan officer, we finally decided on a price to list at and got everything about as clean and de-cluttered as it's gonna get with two young kids living there. It seems like it's paying off... We put the house on the market last week and today alone our realtor scheduled FOUR showings. I'm so excited and all the while trying to keep my hopes from floating away so high...I feel like our house has a lot to offer a young, new (smaller) family and I know we are ready to move on to a bigger house for us. I know that whatever is meant to be will happen so I'm just trying to hold onto that and stay positive about the whole process, no matter how stressful it gets! Right now there is probably the last couple for today looking at the house. I'm really happy about all the traffic it's getting so soon. I feel like that means we made a good decision about the listing price and all the work we've done. So hopefully, that perfect family has seen our house (or will see it soon) and we can move up and out.

We are officially "on the market"...

2009-03-20T09:25:00.000-07:00

Our house is up for sale.

Home sweet home

We had a showing yesterday that went well...and another one today or tomorrow. Our realtor said she's already gotten a few other calls about it too. This is all from just seeing the sign in the yard! Very exciting. I also searched on HAR.com for houses in our price range, size, and location and I only found three (ours included). Ours is the middle price range, and in my opinion looks a LOT nicer on the inside than the other two. One is a foreclosure and the other one is just junky looking. So I at least feel like all the weeks and weeks of cleaning, decluttering and packing and the crazy huge garage sale were worth it. Everyone that has seen it now asks, "where is all your stuff?" lol Our "stuff" is hibernating in the shed...waiting for it's debut into a new, bigger house. Our forever house hopefully.

So if you know someone looking for a great starter house, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 car attached garage in the Pasadena area (Deer Park ISD) pass it on!

Get it Sold!

2009-03-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

Our house is officially on the market! Tomorrow we have two showings so we've been up since the boys passed out getting last minute cleaning done. I'm about to pass out from exhaustion...here's hoping our house sells quick and for TONS over the asking price. LOL. I'll post more info and hopefully the link on HAR.com tomorrow.

Yay! I remembered my password...

2009-03-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

So now I can blog again...except that I don't really have anything exciting to say. Maybe later.

=) lol

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