Favorite Vacation Spots!

Today I'm joining up in Jenna's commenting challenge! How fun is this! The topic for today your dream vacation. In my wildest dreams and with my very imaginary plump bank account these are the places that I'd love love love to visit. 


Cornwall by the sea. ::Sigh::







Scotland ::double sigh::






Ireland 





Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island :





These are all as far away from the heat of Texas as you can get :). I'm sure that you can all imagine why I'd LOVE to be able to get out of all the 100 + degree heat! All of these places look so dreamy in their sublime green coolness. 


Can you tell how much of a romantic I am? :) A beach with sand and a good book would be lovely but give me someplace quiet where I can wear a warm sweater, putter about with a hot cup of coffee and just be! 


All of the above are just what I'd imagine Heaven would be! :)


Hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend! 

If I Was Brave...

...I would totally get this for Grady and Griffin to wear to church.

Even if it did make them look just like Cam from Modern Family :).

My Husbands Secret Obsession :)

(dum...dum...dum... imagine that like scary music in your head)

Ok so it's really not as bad as I make it sound. It's really probably not even an obsession. I think the term obsession implies that someone does whatever crazy thing they do on purpose. My hubby does something crazy but from my thinking has no idea that he's doing it.

Here it is...

This is his hat "collection". By my count there were THIRTY EIGHT ball caps on his "ball cap shelf". There are still more scattered hither and yon in this house. 

What the heck!! 

When I showed these to my darling hubby and asked him to weed some out he explained that 4 belonged to Graham and 3 belonged to Grady. You know, because that makes all this mess that much better for me to have to deal with :). 

I sat next to him when the pruning was taking place and realized that this reminds me of the problem that Monica on Friends has with her bathroom hand towels (ie- multiple categories :). (I tried to find that episode on youtube for ya'll to watch because it is seriously funny but I couldn't find it :( )

Bobby's hat categories break down into :

• yard work hats
• nice "going out" hats
• hats for driving home from work in
• hats for specific sporting events
• hats so smelly and disgusting but so loved that they must stay
• hats that were given to him and free by work vendors and so they must be saved to use for later (see yard work hats)

Bless my hubby's sweet heart for he was finally able to get rid of about a 1/3 of them.

 ::Sigh::

The rest went right back up onto the shelf in which they has previously came down from. 

What a wife to do! :)

Does your hubby collect anything awful?

Happy

This little guy just makes my day! He had just gotten done eating dinner last night and was in the best mood ever! I was laughing at him because he was eating "store bought food" and not the stuff that I make for him. I wonder if this is the equivalent of "going out to eat" for babies? :) He really must have enjoyed the change I think!

This is seriously one of my favorite pictures of Griffin! I LOVE his sweet gummy smile!

My sweet precious blessing! I thank God for him every single day!

The GROSSEST Workout Story You Will Ever Read

Once upon a time, a very lovely but very {ahem} fluffy mother decided that she needed to get her big rear up and moving. She went into her closet to pull out her running shoes because she thought that the day looked lovely for a walk. She took the first running shoe and gently smacked the bottom of it to check and make sure that nothing was inside. (Ya'll in this South Texas fairy tale we have scorpions that like to hide in shoes.) Nothing inside that one! She picked up the second shoe and similarly smacked it like the first one.


Hmmm.


Something has fallen out of the second shoe!


The beautifully fluffy mother looked closer at the object on the floor and discovered to her HORROR that it was a tiny flesh colored lizard SKELETON.


::shriek::


OHHH, the dual horror. She didn't know what was worse, the fact that something had died in her shoe or the fact that it had been so long since she worked out that something was able to die in her shoe and then dry up to nothing but a SKELETON!


The End


Moral of the story: work out every.single.day  so that nothing has a chance to die in your shoe.

We Come From Interesting Stock

So for a while now I have been meaning to scan and save some priceless family pictures. I finally got around to doing that this morning! I panic now because we have all of these wonderfully old family pictures that we've gratefully inherited but live in a terribly digital age. I really feel pressed to spend the better part of a day week and scan every last one of them. So far I have managed to do FOUR. Hmm. This may take longer than I anticipated....


I wanted to share these first four with you all. They are each so incredibly special to me!


The first one is of my Grandma Winnie. She was really really old by the time that I was born (my Daddy was already 52 when he had me). I never really felt like I had much of a chance to get to know her all that well before she passed. I do have some beautiful pictures of her though!

I love this picture of her from probably the 60's or 70's. I know for sure that it was taken in Dallas. Now that I say where the picture was taken can you see why her face is showing pure joy :). Snow in Texas is a luxury ya'll! I love her timeless coat with the wonderful giant buttons and the fur hat is just to die for!

Speaking of my Daddy, here he is as a little boy with his Daddy. Do you just love that hair! I can not for the life of me imagine why my Grandma would have let him get his picture taken like that with his hair standing up! Surely back then every picture was priceless right? Wouldn't you have made sure that everything was just so knowing that you couldn't  take a million pictures and then delete most like we do today? Maybe my Grandma did though. Notice how cleanly swept the front porch is, the rocking chair with the carefully placed hat on it, the creased pants and tucked in shirts? What were they doing that day? Had my Daddy been outside playing and run over for a quick picture?

I also really like this picture because you can clearly see my Grandfathers hands. They are exactly like my Daddy's. I LOVE that.  I never got the chance to meet my Grandfather and I still have so many questions. My Daddy passed away three and a half years ago so those questions will continue to go unanswered. :(.

This next picture is one from my Momma's side of the family. It's my Great Uncle George (My mom's dad's brother). I nearly choked from laughing when I saw it :). It pretty much sums up how hilariously crazy that side of my family was is. 

Please don't be scared. :) Notice that there are two ropes... One for the fake hanging and one likely tied to a belt loop or some such thing...

 It's also hard to tell because the picture got wet and really damaged, but can you see what's in his right (our left) hand? Yup. That's a bottle of booze. I'm sure he and who ever his drinking buddies were that day were using that bottle for more than just a prop. :) Ya'll, that takes some serious talent to drink that much in the middle of the day to come up with a prank like this and then take a picture of it....  This side of the family is still filled with crazy funny people just like this!

The last picture is from my hubby's side of the family. It is one of my absolute favorites! It sits framed in our family room so I can look at it all I want. :)

Is this just me or does this fellow look just like Bobby?? When this picture was discovered by Bobby's cousin Wendy a couple of years ago we all just marveled at how much the two look alike! To my reckoning, this gentleman was Bobby's Great Great grandpa Burkett. Those are some strong genes!

 Griffin is named for him :).

He was a seriously interesting man. At one time he was a taxidermist and a Sheriff! 

I can't wait to keep going through the rest of my pictures and see what other treasures I can discover!

Only Grady... (Alternately Titled "A Panicked Text From This Weekend")

A quick back story... Grady had a birthday party to go to this weekend. One of his little friends from his preschool had invited him and I pretty much didn't know the family at all. They were very sweet and showed up at Grady's birthday party the week before so I really felt that we should return the favor. We showed up at the house and ZOMG... it was INSANELY nice. Like 3/4 of a million dollars nice. You can well imagine what the inside looked like...


Me: Omg. Grady just scratched a bite on his leg and BLED all over these people's really nice carpet at this bday we're at! Should I try and use a Shout wipe that I have with me or try and offer to get their carpets cleaned??


Melanie: Try the wipe first! Poor girl!


Me : Soooo embarrassed. The mom already pulled out her carpet cleaner. Grrr. Of course we're in one of these insanely nice Rockwall houses.


Melanie: Oh... You poor thing. Just help her and I will cross my fingers. 


Ya'll, I felt terrible! The kids mom was like 20 plus weeks pregnant and already had enough stuff going on at this party and then Grady tracks his bloody leg all over her house. I felt like we needed a Hazmat cleaning team in there. :/ All I could think of was BLOOD BORN PATHOGENS and KISS THE NEW FRIENDS GOODBYE!. 


She was pretty nice about it and I camped out next to the bloody spots while the carpet cleaner sat and did it's thing. The spots did come out thankyouGod. Thank goodness the rest of the party was uneventful for Grady :).

What's In My Purse!

Haha. I bet this blog post gets more hits than any other one combined :) Who doesn't just LOVE a good nosy look at other people's private areas spots things. (I'm pretty sure any way I phrase that I will still get strange, nut job google searches end up here. Hey, strange, nut-job person, get away from my blog!) :)

When you drive around at night do you look into other people's living rooms and such when they leave their lights on and their shades open? I do!

I was fascinated when I saw that Ginmommy was participating in a "What's in your purse" Friday. How fun is this!

So the rules go, NO CLEANING OUT YOUR PURSE IN ADVANCE! I pretty much think that's it as far as rules go :). The second rule should be CLEAN THAT CRAP OUT WHEN YOU GET DONE TAKING PICTURES OF IT ALL. :)

With out further ado, here is my purse!

I spent one gazillion dollars getting this Coach purse but I've had it since before Grady was born I think so that almost 5 years!! Weeellll worth the money I dropped. 

Here is the inside with it partially cleaned out. I started to empty it and then remembered that I had wanted to take a "before" picture. I wasn't about to re-stuff crap back into it again. So, this is it halfway empty.

Yay! All cleaned out! Poor yicky bottom...

And, here is all the mess laid out for the world to see. I tried to group like items together. Sometimes that was impossible. :) Funny that for a while I had a Lego pile going!

This is the breath-freshening section of my purse. I like fresh breath and it worries me a lot that I may be speaking to people and they are cringing. I don't think that I have this problem but you never know. Better safe than sorry! 

Bobby and I are going out for Lobster this weekend with the amount of change I cleared out from the bottom of my purse! :)

My wallet that won't shut. I keep it pretty clean though. I panic if I think that I can't find my debit card or drivers license so I make it a priority to have this portion of my life organized. So sad that I don't feel the same towards my laundry...

My wallets! Silly that there are 3 really. One obviously for all of my cards, one for if I just need to take a couple of cards and a key with me, and one that holds just my Momma calling cards. 

This is the electronics section of my purse!I was glad that I found my cord for my camera. I was missing it :). I also had my phone, Graham's ITouch, a flash drive, and the case for my camera (that is sadly seldom used) all in my purse.

Here you will see the beauty and health section of my purse. I had lipstick, lip gloss, chapped lip stuff, 2 kinds of sunscreen, bug repellent, hand sanitizer, butt cream, allergy medicine, and some stain remover. Good grief! 

Wow, more crap. Here are my keys, checkbook, trash, and some random cards, movie tickets, and a coupon!

The crap just never seems to end right? So here we have the 3 kinds of sunglasses that you need (brown, black, and broken), pens, matches (stolen from the birthday party place, sorry), and a plastic army man.

Ah, the end is near! 2 Legos from Lego land and a pile of coupons and receipts from recent trips to the grocery store! 

Hope ya'll all have a great weekend and What's in your purse? 

Slip Slidin' Away

For Grady's 4th Birthday (post coming soon!) he got a Slip n' Slide! We were so excited to get it opened and see that it was a super fast blow up one complete with a board to slide on!

Grady really loved that there was a pool area at the bottom of the Slip n' Slide for him to hang out in.

I was an awesome way for the boys to argue hang out together!

What an awesome morning we had with some great, silly fun!

Hallway Reveal and Some Advise Needed

So you know me, always working on something in my house :). Like I've said before, it's a touch older and while it's structurally sound it is by no means cosmetically sound. Ha! If you remember (but really, why would you :) , all the paint on the walls is a flat white and my boys sticky hand prints are covering everything. I've been trying to gradually correct this, ahem, problem while updating my house room by room. Oh so gradually, things are starting to come together. 


So far the dining room has been completed, the downstairs hallway (pictures below), the downstairs bathroom (I'm already wanting to re-do it, go figure), Griffin's bathroom and Griffin's bathroom part 2, Griffin's bedroom, Grady's room, and Graham's room. It seems like a lot when I look at what's gotten done, but then I look around my house and realize that there is sooo much more still left to do!!


Part of me thinks that I should have just started downstairs and done all of that first and then worked my way upstairs. I guess in reality I've done what gets used the most and where the most people see. In keeping with that theory, the kitchen and family room need to be next.


 :: sigh ::


Why do the two biggest and hardest rooms need to be next??


I envision this summer to be filled with late nights, and long weekends. (Bobby, honey, if you are reading this post would you just pack up all 3 of our boys and go stay at your mom's house for a weekend so I can get those rooms done?? :)

Ok, enough blabbering on my part. Here is the hallway! 

The above two pictures are from two different vantage points. Please pardon the boxes in the dining room. Spring cleaning has evolved into summer cleaning now :).

The next two pictures above are just some fun accents I added to go around our front door. I have a serious addiction to anything canvas right now. I feel like it makes my house more personalized. Quick side question for ya'll.... Notice my front door is a bizarre shade of ummmm, light green? Would you paint the door white or black? The outside of our house is a very light grey brick. I'm thinking that this door being white would get very dirty and really wash out the outside of our house. I love the idea of blacks and tans together with pops of color around. Hmmm. I might have just talked myself into painting this door black :). Thoughts on this ya'll??

I had a couple of spaces in the hallway that needed just a little something. I think I found some really cute stuff! The first portrait we just had done of the boys! I think it turned out really well. They were all really cooperative that day for the pictures! The second picture is just a fun little tin bit that I had hanging around. The third picture is a fun canvas picture holder that I picked up last week. I am in LOVE with it. I had my eye on it for quite a while before I got. Yay for restraint! :)

In case any of ya'll were wondering here is the difference in the paint. Left side - nasty, dirty white paint. Right side - clean, wipe-able, hint of color.

Ok, now that ya'll have endured 8 pictures of one hallway :), I need some opinions on my stairway. 

I know that I'll have to pay a professional to take care of the painting here. The ceiling are probably around 20 feet high and neither Bobby or myself is getting on a ladder to do this. That said, I decided to go ahead and hang some pictures in the stairway. ( This is a HUGE thing for me. Normally I refuse to hang anything until the painting is done because I hate to stress about hanging only to have to take it down and then re-hang again later. Whew. Glad I got that out of the way :)

Let me start off by saying that our stairway goes up and then curves around. What you are seeing is just the first half of it. Please do not look at the deflated blow-up air mattress on our stairs. It has been there for months and will continue to stay there until my very sweet hubby moves it for me. (I am convinced that there are flesh colored lizards living under there and so I refuse to touch it. That story is for another post.) 

The blue tape you see is me marking off the distance of how far apart the nails need to go (each picture takes 2). It also serves to set the distance and slope between each of the pictures. After 47 tries, one level, one measuring tape, and 6,000 cuss words I finally got them even.

I purchased these frames 18 months ago when were in the midst of trying for Griffin. At the time I was wondering /hoping that the third frame would hold a baby picture or one of Bobby and myself. A week after the picture frame purchase I saw the most precious two pink lines! :) God is good!

My problem is this... when I hang them at what would be considered a normal level (with me standing on the ground floor) they would be about waist level to someone walking up the stairs. That's just weird looking. If I hang them at what would be considered a normal level while standing on the stairs then they look insanely high while standing on the ground floor.

Case in point...

See how high they look up! Poor Griffin is up so high that he's actually hanging above the ceiling line for downstairs!  But, when I am standing on the stairs below Griffin, he is right at a good chest/shoulder area on me.(Please also do not notice then line of sticky Grady hand prints on the wall. For whatever reason he feels like he must touch the wall every.single.time.

Here are just some random perspective views from the mid-way landing. 

When I am walking up the stairs they look perfectly normal to me. It's only when I am downstairs looking up do they look funny and off. Randomly can I also just say that I am afraid to hang them lower for fear of Grady jacking with them when he walks up the stairs...

What the heck would you do?

Hope ya'll enjoyed this little tour of what's been going on in our house lately!