Today I am 35

Yes, today is my birthday and I am officially closer to 40 than 30. Wow! Not that I'm complaining. I have thoroughly enjoyed my 30s to this point. Most of the great stuff in my life has happened in (or around) this decade of my life and I have much, much, much to be grateful for. I think it's fitting to take stock of who I am in this point in my life.

I am a child of God. Forever forgiven, loved, and blessed.
I am a wife to the love of my life. He often deserves better than me, but I am ever thankful for the life we have together.
I am a mother to two gorgeous children who light up my life. I never knew it was possible to love this much.
I am a daughter to two wonderful mothers - one by birth and one by marriage.
I am a sister to my incredible sister and her fabulous husband and aunt to their two great kids.
I am a niece and cousin in a fantastic family.
I am a loyal friend to those that really matter.
I am a working professional at a job I love.
I am a volunteer to help those in need.
I am, at best, a horrible housekeeper. I can procrastinate with the best of them.
I am a self-confessed computer junkie. I love my Photoshop, my message boards, my blog.
I am a perfectionist when it comes to things I want to be good at.
I am a happy person who loves to make others smile.
I am passionate about the things I believe in and not afraid to let you know it.
I am a 35 year young woman who is quite comfortable in her skin and in her place in life.

Just a small list of who I am that will probably get added to as I think of more.

BTW, Pook took the picture. She did a fabulous job, don't you think?

Happy Birthday to me!

My first Top Ten

Once again motivated by Jessica, (who I am not afraid to admit I have a slight girl crush on...I mean, c'mon on...how can you not? The woman is so incredibly creative and just from reading her blog you can tell that she is one of the best mothers on the planet) I am tackling my very first top ten things of right now in no particular order.

1. Watching K-Man play with Pook and Diesel. They adore their father and all is right with the world when I get to watch him in action with them.

2. Spending time with my sister. We live 4 hours apart (too far) and she's visiting for a while with her kids while he DH is deployed to the Middle East. We've spent our time tag-teaming our children as they run the gamut of loving each other sooooo sooooo very much to fighting the way kids do when they've spent too much time together in one sitting. Ours is a special relationship, one that has matured too much to even try to describe over the years. We're finally at that comfortable place where we are able to fully accept each other for who we are individually. We can argue, agree, and then somehow she's the recipient of a MUCH needed pedicure courtesy of moi. I'm a great big sister! ;-)

3. Our weather right now. It's been an incredibly mild summer by Texas standards. TONS (and I do mean TONS) of rain and we've only hit a high in the high 90s once or twice so far...and it's mid-July!

4. Music. I'm singing in a friend's wedding in September so I'm learning the music she wants me to sing. I've also got to pick out a song to sing next Sunday at my DH's childhood church. Must. go. do. that. SOON. I've been listening to a lot of Selah and getting goosebumps. They've got some songs that do it to me everytime.

5. Believe it or not...work. July is a pretty slow month for me in the office actually and I just got my last big project for the summer out of the way so I can relax...just a tish.

6. My tan. Yes, it's incredibly vain, but I love my golden glow.

7. Anything cooked on the grill. DH is a master griller and we had burgers and dogs last night. There's just something about not messing up my kitchen that makes them extra tasty.

8. Summer. Which for me, always includes reading completely worthless books and not feeling guilty about it.

9. Homemade ice cream. DH made some this past weekend and I'm already craving it again. Maybe I can talk him into making more this weekend.

10. Good friends. We've been blessed with some incredible friends. What is is the old saying? In your life you have two families, the ones your born with and the ones you choose. I guess sometimes they choose you, but nevertheless I'm grateful to be able to count good friends as family.

Blissfully tired & happy to be home

Ahoy, mateys! We're home and settled and blissfully tired. Now the mountainous task of laundry begins. What a great week we had. Four different ports and we have fallen in love with Roatan, Honduras. Seriously...DH was online last night looking for vacation properties there. On the 4th day of our cruise (July 4th) We hopped a cab with our two couple friends and headed to West Bay Beach. Our personal tour guide was Grace and she was fantastic. She stayed with us the whole day, sitting on the beach and watching our stuff. I snorkeled for the first time in my life in the reef there. They have the second largest reef in the world and it is absolutely gorgeous! So wish I'd have had an underwater camera. The colors of all the fish were amazing! We swam so far out that we could feel the temperature of the water change and when we looked down we had reached the drop off at the edge of the reef. The ocean floor drops to 1800 ft. there and I was staring down at the bluest water I've ever seen. The beaches are pristine and we were so sad to leave there, but know without a doubt that we will go back. It really was paradise.



Our first port, Cozumel, was fun as well. It was the only day we actually did an organized excursion. DH went on a Mexican Cuisine one and I spent the day on the beach. Luckily, they were at the same resort so I could run up and visit at any time. I also had the added perk of being able to sample the stuff they cooked. The grouper was outstanding, but I had to show you a photo of his dessert creation.




Day 5 had us porting in Costa Maya, Mexico and once again we grabbed a cab and headed out. We'd learned from some people in Honduras that Mahahual was the place to go and we soon found out that they were right. It's a very primitive fishing village with a stretch of gorgeous beach, the perfect breeze and friendly people. My friend and I got massages right on the beach and DH & her DH found us the perfect spot on the beach under a mangrove tree. Our only complaint about the place was that we had to leave it all too soon.



Progreso was our least favorite port so we spent only about an hour roaming around the city. I did get some cool architectural shots though.




Days 2 and 7 had DH in meetings all day so I spent my time lounging by the pool and reading and visiting with all the other wives on the trip.
I knew I had missed my kids, but I wasn't prepared to feel just how much I did until I saw them yesterday. They were waiting outside for us when we pulled up and I couldn't get out of the car fast enough. Pookster ran out to meet me I started crying. Our friend brought Diesel to me and I'm not ashamed to admit that I can't keep my lips off either one of my precious kiddos. They're going to be sick of me by the end of the day today.

Pook starts her first VBS tonight. She so excited and I know she'll have a blast. Laundry and the grocery store await me so I need to get off the computer now, but I'll be back to post about our nightlife aboard the Rhapsody of the Seas later.

Slacker blogger...but not by choice

Man, I haven't truly posted something worthwhile in what seems like ages. Work has had me so swamped that the only thoughts swimming around in my headache riddled brain have been about making sure that the mondo-conference I'm wrapping up today went off without any major bumps. T minus two hours and I will have achieved that goal. Yes, I'm blogging from work. Don't tell my boss. I needed a little me time in the middle of this morning. So shoot me!

I'm hoping and praying that this tic in my right eye goes away later today, too. Somehow I'm thinking it's going to hang on until we are leaving port on Sunday. I've made myself checklists of everything to pack...one list for the kiddos, one for DH & me. If you could be here right now, you'd see me on the phone with DH as he runs errands for me this morning. What brand of diapers? How many? Does this sippy cup sound like it will work? Will he eat this type of veggie or fruit? It's so sweet and incredibly cute when he is being helpful.

Rain, rain go away

We're going on our 3000th straight day of rain. Okay, so 3000 is a bit of exaggeration, but I swear it's been raining since I can remember and we've still got chances of rain in the forecast through next Tuesday. We've had our fair share of flooded roadways, rivers, and creeks, but other parts of Texas have gotten it even worse. Parts of the Hill Country had 19-20 inches of rain in 24 hours a couple of days ago. North Texas isn't any better. Homes are flooded, bridges washed out. I can't remember ever getting this much rain at once. The jokes abound around here about needing to build an ark. What's not a joke is that we do need to pray for those people who have lost everything due to these flooding rains. My heart goes out to them.

Even Pook, who loves the rain, is walking around singing Rain, Rain, Go Away. I think it's just because it's cutting into her pool time. Since she learned to swim with her floaties and jump off the side of the pool by herself, all we here is "when do I get to go swimming again?" She's starting to doggy paddle in her bathtub just to keep up her skills. ;)

Other random stuff

Try giving the Diesel a bath these days and you're going to get wet. He luuuhhhuuuvvvvsss his bathtime! He also loves to kick and splash water everywhere. We've got to get him in the pool. My sister gets to do that this week. Lucky her!

I'm so going to miss my kids this next week. I asked DH if I was like this when we left the Pookster for the first time when she was 10 months old. He responded with a quick yes, so I guess it's to be expected that I'm a little anxious about our trip.

Must cut this short for now. IT is coming to run a virus scan on my 'puter.

Rough day

Don't really want to elaborate, but if you can spare some prayers...send an extra up for me. No one is sick or hurt and it's not the end of the world, but I could sure use the power of extra prayer to get through this week.

I don't have a right to complain or whine. We're going on an already paid for cruise in 5 days. I just really need to feel the arms of Jesus around me right now.

One week from today

For some odd reason the Love Boat theme is playing in my head. ;)

Now if I can just make it through this week at work, there is a big, honkin' light at the end of the tunnel. Seven days until we set sail. I'll be back later to add more to this post. I have a meeting in about 30 minutes. Working on Sundays BITES!

Great news & one happy face

How did our trip to Austin go, you ask? The actual car ride was miserable. Rain...all the way down. Traffic was horrid and we were 30 minutes late, but the results of the voyage were completely worth it. The pediatric cardiologist did not hear the murmur from the VSD in Diesel's heart so he officially removed the VSD from his medical file. Praise God! Dr. Wong is a fantastically nice guy and turns out he and his wife are Baylor grads to boot. We spent 20 extra minutes just chatting about that. Small world, I tell ya!

In honor of our fantastic news I just had to post this page. By far, my fave photo taken of him so far.



Here for credits

Oh...the Pookster & Father's Day

Father's Day turned out to be a rainy one here. Very rainy. However, I do think that DH had a great day overall. I mean, you can't go wrong with a lazy Sunday afternoon spent watching the drama unfold in the US Open. And the one thing you can always count on is that at some point during the course of a normal day, Pook is going to make you laugh. That moment came early this morning as we were getting ready for church. She had made her daddy a present at school and gave it to him this morning (a really cute pic of her in a magnetic frame). As DH is telling her thank you and gushing over it, she says....

"Yeah, well when it's kid's day they better be making me something!"

I just had to interject, "Honey, everyday is kid's day."

Kids! Where do they come up with this stuff? My dad was visiting us this weekend and he swears we've got to get her in commercials.

Speaking of Dad, we had a great visit. There's a lot of history there that I won't go into right now, but it was actually nice to get to see him. He brought along my little brother, too. He's 5 and such a sweetie. Big into Spidey these days. I guess I have all that to look forward to with Diesel.

Another Pook story

I wasn't actually present for this one, but I'm going to share it anyway. Apparently, DH was watching that new Fast Cars & Superstars and Pook comes strolling through the room, spots the photos of the Alltel commercial guys on the hood of one of the cars and says, "What up...Chad." You think that means our kid watches a little too much TV? Yikes!

PS

I posted a couple of new LOs but wanted to show this one off. I am blessed beyond belief!

Here for credits

Just your average boy

Had Diesel's 6 month appointment yesterday. Our chunk of burning love weighed in at an even 17 lbs. and was 26 3/4 inches long. About the 50th percentile for each...just your average boy. He seems so big to us because while Pook was a chunky baby, she was always on the petite frame size and fell off the charts for height at one point. She's still petite, just don't call her little. She has a severe aversion to that word when used in reference to her. Little toot!

Our sweet boy was born with a VSD (ventricular septal defect) that caused a heart murmur. However, the ped and ped cardiologist believed that it would close on its own by the time he was 6 months old. I'm happy to report that our ped didn't hear it and we go to the cardiologist next Wednesday to get the all clear from him.

After three shots and a whole lot of screaming baby, we left the doctor's office with a very sound asleep boy on my shoulder. He didn't even wake up when I put him in the car seat or took him out at the sitter's. Don't you wish you could sleep like that again? Such is the life of being a mom. Every little noise wakes you up because you're always on guard about your little ones. Hey, I'll sleep when I dead, right?

Trifecta

How could I forget to post this? My bodily injury trifecta became complete when I turned my ankle in our softball game last Friday night. Yep, you heard right. After my self-inflicted, dog-inflicted, burn-ridden torturous week, I turned my ankle rounding 3rd. In the first inning! I felt like such an old lady. Luckily, it's not bad, but it sure hurt for a solid 3 days. The old body...she just ain't what she used to be. :)

Gamote & defrigiderator

I'm just a little sad. DH & I were reminiscing today about the things the Pookster used to say and do. Since she started talking, she's always had a vocabulary that amazed us, her teachers and even strangers. Still there were times that some words just weren't easy to say and she wound up with her own special pronunciations like

gamote = remote
defrigiderator = refrigerator
hunder = thunder

You get the idea. What has made me sad is that my sweet baby girl is not a baby anymore. She's not really even what I'd call a toddler. She's full-blown, sassy malassy, parent-correctin' little girl.

"Uh, Daddy...it's not gamote it's REmote."

Heaven help us when she hits her teens. :)

When it rains...

Why is it that when one part of your life gets hyper-busy all other parts seem to follow suit? This week at work has just slammed me. It might not be seem as bad if this week wasn't the week for the Pookster's swim lessons. Thank the dear Lord above for DH's flexible summer schedule (and help from my MIL) that has allowed me to work an extra 45 minutes while they run all over town picking up our offspring only to bring them back to this side of town for her swim lessons. The house is once again a wreck and laundry is screaming to be done. This is my life, I guess.

Cruise coming up

Passports? Check!
Tickets? Check!
Excitement? Double Check!!

This will be my first cruise (DH has been before) and I cannot wait! A glorius 8 day/7 night adventure for just us. And a couple of friends. And a boat full of people. But, hey, we'll be kid-free! Don't get me wrong. We're going to miss them like C-R-A-Z-Y, but they'll be in excellent hands with my sister (Hey, chica!) and having a blast with their cousins. 18 days and counting, baby! Can we leave tomorrow?

What church do you go to?

Pook story coming up. Keep in mind that this is our chatterbox of a child.

At school, the teacher is talking about making good choices (this is the staple of their classroom) and always telling the truth. Our dear sweet daughter walks up to Mrs. Duncan, taps her on the shoulder and says.....

"Mrs. Duncan, Jesus doesn't want us to tell the truth."

*Mommy sidebar - HUH? Since when?

A lengthy conversation followed and I'm not really sure why the Pookster said that. It might be because we talk all the time about what makes God happy. You know...minding Mommy and Daddy, being nice to Diesel, not arguing, etc.

Oh...and Mrs. Duncan's reply?

"I've got to ask your Mommy & Daddy where y'all go to church?"

Goodness gracious!

The weekend

Thankfully the weekend is upon us and for the first time in what seems like forever, we're all going to be at home together. These are my favorite times. Lazy Saturday mornings when Pook climbs into bed between us and pesters us to turn on cartoons while we try to catch just a few more minutes of sleep before the Diesel beckons. Maybe my sweet husband will treat us to his yum-yum-yum delicioso pancakes tomorrow. (Those of you with kids will surely get that Dora reference :))

Speaking of tv shows...can I just say how completely bummed DH & I are that Studio 60 was cancelled. Grateful as we are that NBC is at least airing the remaining episodes, it just reminds us how miffed we are that it's not coming back. How they can keep My Name is Earl and dump such a witty, well-written show is beyond me.

Have I mentioned that DH & I play on a coed rec softball team? Silly me. It's a regular part of our summer routine. First softball game is tonight and we are soooo looking forward to it.

Breathe deeply.....heck, just breath period

Whirlwind of a day week already. Oh, wait it's Thursday. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday. What natural law is it that says anything thing that can go wrong will? I'm renaming it Leslie's Law.

Earlier this week, while curling my hair, I dropped the curling iron and tried to catch it...with my bare arm. Brilliant, I know. I'm sporting a pretty sweet burn on my upper right arm. Looks like I tried to brand myself. Then, today we almost had one seriously dead dog on our hands. Well, that's because I almost killed him. I had the responsibility of taking both the kiddos to their respective school and day care this morning. That always makes for a hectic morning, but it's not normally so patience-trying until you throw in an uncooperative dog. Shiner, our still-a-puppy Australian Shepherd, decided he didn't want to be put up this morning and proceeded to toy with me and wouldn't come when called. Not even for a treat. Damn dog. A result of his "play" he raked his tie-out cable across the top of my foot at a high rate of speed and took multiple layers of skin with it. Again, damn dog. So now I'm the not so happy host of not one, but two burns in the span of 3 days. I think I'll lock myself in the house this weekend and not even attempt to go near anything that might leave some kind of damaging mark on my skin. I just need to remember in times like these , when nothing seems to be going my way, to breathe deeply...heck, just breathe period.

The Pook & Diesel, by the by, were safely delivered. Thank God for those bright spots in my day.

What I did on my day off

I had to stay at home with Diesel yesterday. Our sitter was having her 6 month cancer free cat scan. We are praying that it comes back clean as a whistle.

Sooooo I got to do some scrapping. Yeah, me! Here are a couple that I worked on. Of course, you can always find my layouts here.


Here for credits


Here for credits

Good times, tired kids...oh, and my first comment

Good times

We spent the Memorial Day weekend at my sister's house. BIL leaves for a 3-month tour in the Middle East next week so we went up to spend some time with the fam. We are so, so proud of him and what he does and don't want to miss the opportunity to tell him so. It's always so good to see them. We desperately wish we lived closer to each other. Our kiddos always have such a great time and there is never a shortage for laughs. Or arguments for that matter. Hey, when you get a 9 yr old, a 5 yr old, a 3 yr old and a 5 month old together there's bound to be tattling going on. Add another 5 yr old to the mix and you have the makings for some loudness. We did our fair share of refereeing and shushing, but it was all worth it. We also got to visit with my dear sweet grandmother. She's living on her own again and has the cutest little two bedroom cottage. Can I just tell you how much I love this woman? I'm telling you that the seat next to Jesus in heaven is marked reserved especially for her. She is the godliest, best person I know and we are extremely blessed to have her in our lives.



Tired kids (mommy & daddy, too)

Our original intent was to travel home on Sunday, but the Baylor Bears made the championship game of the Big 12 baseball tournament so we spent the afternoon at the ballpark. As you can tell by the photos, we had two very, very tired kids on our hands. Needless to say, we spent another night and it was as it should be because we got to just sit and visit around the new fire pit on the patio.

Sweet angel faces.




And btw, I'm completely stoked!!!! Even though I do this blog primarily for me and my fam, it's kinda cool to know somebody else actually visited. So, thanks to Christine for posting a comment. Who knew I would be this giddy over a little ol' comment?

Have you heard the news?

The fabulous Jessica Sprague's new website is live! Check it out here!

In case you haven't figured it out...I love her. Her tutorials are so informative and easy to understand. Try 'em out. You'll love 'em, too.

What do you want them to remember?

So I'm perusing some of the blogs I frequent (meaning read and lurk and occassionally post a comment on). I'm reading Jessica's this morning and enjoying as always her stories about her kids and she posed the question...."What do you want your kids (or those who love you) to remember about their life with you?"

I'll probably be working on how to answer this all day. Well, that and I'll probably come back and edit it like 3 different times. The most important thing I want my children to remember is that they were loved and wanted and that no matter what, there will always be someone in this world who wants only the best for them. If they know that in their souls, then I will be happy. I want them to remember always that their father is a man of great integrity and that his sole reason for living is to see joy on their faces. I would love for them to remember how much we like to give tons of hugs and kisses, how much we love to laugh and sing, the cookies we've baked together and the messes we've made.

Quick Pook funny & a shocking finding

The two are totally unrelated but I thought I'd share them both.

First the Pook funny

K-man was out mowing the yard last night and Pook was watching him through the front windows. As he disappeared around the corner she turns to me and we have this little exchange...

"Mommy, Daddy is through yarding."

"You mean mowing, Pook?"

"That's what I said, Mama. Yarding."

Apparently, I had no clue what I was talking about. It's not mowing the grass...it's yarding. Man, I love this little girl.

Now for the shocking finding...for some reason, I can no longer access DSP from my work 'puter. This is troubling as my friends/co-workers like to see new pics of the kiddos that I might not have posted here yet. No, really...they do. That's only partly the reason though. I'm bummed because it was my favorite time-killer at work. You know, where I liked to browse when I was avoiding the massive stacks of work to be plodded through on my desk. I've also sunk to a new low. I even called ITS to find out why. Yep, you heard right. I called ITS about a non-work related site. The tech I talked to love it though. She couldn't even access it and she wants to now because she wants to learn more about digiscrap. Yeah, that's me...enlightener to all who wish to become as addicted as I. Gotta go see if they fixed the prob yet. Toodles!

Happy Mother's Day to me!

The Pook and Grammie conspired to buy me this beautiful hibiscus. Isn't it gorgeous?

Sick baby & one helluva week

The Diesel apparently has some kind of virus. Sitter called today to say he was runing 101.5 and not eating. Now, for my son not to eat is a big deal. He's always game for a meal. Not usually the paranoid, let's run to the doctor for every little thing type...however, it was Friday afternoon and I didn't want the sweet boy to suffer through the weekend with an unchecked ear infection. Luckily, ears are clear and he's not even fussy. I've got great kids! (Remind me of that the next time my 3.5-going-on-13 year old tries my patience.)

K-Man is out with the ex-nanny/adopted daughter for drinks.

*Sidebar* -Given the whole Jude Law thing that probably didn't sound right. Janelle was our nanny for her final year of college. She was phenomenal with Pook and became just another member of the family. Tragically, her father passed away in March 06 and we became surrogate parents. I love this kid and would go to the ends of the earth for her.

I'm ready for them to come home. I'm hungry and they're brining Bueno. Think I'm going to scrap some while I'm waiting on them. Maybe I'll even post the finished products.