Summer Bliss

Summer isn't technically here, but it is close enough! Yesterday I only had my eight year old and we had such a wonderful day. I picked her up from school, we grabbed her swimsuit and then headed to my house to play in the sprinkler. If that wasn't fun enough, we saw the ice truck truck on our way to my house. Ice cream, the sprinkler and sitting on the patio to play with this cute little thing! It was a great afternoon! For those of you interested, we have decided on Maverick. We say it with two syllables, Mavrick. He has already brought us so much joy. We can't believe we waited so long to bring a puppy home. He did not sleep well the first few nights, but is now sleeping all night. We are so thankful, because we were starting to feel like zombies!

The weather has been so nice and since our patio has been finished, I spend more time outside than inside. It is fabulous!

Today is a day that we have been anxiously awaiting for a long time. We are headed to www.thehideawayranch.com. We will be staying at the Hacienda. We stayed there almost two years ago and are thrilled to be going back. We were afraid we were going to have to cancel the trip since they don't allow pets and Mr. Protective Dad was not about to board his little baby. Thanks to Sandy, James' mom we don't have to cancel. She volunteered to keep our little boy safe and happy while we are gone.

I hope everyone has a wonderful, long weekend. I know we will!

Around Here

Hello friends! I got a lot of exciting stuff to share! Remember back in mid-April when I gave a teaser of a few changes going on around our house. Well, I am finally ready to show you what we have been up to. First, here is our new front room. We spent a few months with it completely empty, but absolutely love it now! It has been done for a few weeks now and I love it every time I walk in.

Remember this sad backyard?

Well, after about 25 different lies, weeks of rain, 3 different colors, 100 cigarette butts in our yard, one big 'ole pile of human waste in our yard (yes, I did say that) and 1 yelling match between Fred and I on the phone, it now looks like this!!

It is not what we had anticipated and is still not what we thought we were paying so much money for, but we are both just so sick of Freddy boy that we will take it. The color is off, etc. but as I am sitting out here right now I just can't help but smile. I allowed myself to waste waaay too many hours of frustration over this project. It's not perfect, but I love it anyway!!

Now take a look at our new baby!! Yes, we are now the proud parents of this little guy.

And just in case you need proof that he is indeed a guy, here you go!

We have really, REALLY struggled with the name. At first we decided on Foster, but when I heard myself say "Hey Foster Boy!!", I realized that wouldn't work! So then he went nameless for a day, until we thought we decided on Toby. Now we are trying to decided if we like Toby or Maverick better. I'll let you know the verdict.

Pretty cute, don't ya think?

We went for a long overdue trip to Mom and Dad's this weekend. Of course I couldn't take pictures of "puppy" without getting a couple of the Man!! Wally was actually a little scared of the puppy, but are you surprised?

So that is what we are up to these days. For anyone who cares, I didn't set a resolution for May. I was feeling totally unmotivated and decided that it would be pointless. At first I felt a little bad about it, but now realize that is nothing to feel guilty about. I'm still on the job hunt and promise to let you all know as things happen. Thanks for checking in!

Mother, Like Daughter

I am like most daughters in that I have inherited many, many things from my mom. I have many of my mom's best traits, some of her quirky thought patterns and some traits that tend to get us in trouble from time to time. For example, we have a severe problem when it comes to knowing our car size. I can't think of how many times one or both of use go shopping, fall in love with a piece of furniture and then convince ourselves that "of course it will fit in my car."

That is exactly what happened yesterday. My great friend Rosa (shout out!) was having an Estate Sale with tons of cool and interesting stuff. I found a wonderful table with tons of potential that I just knew I had to have. I had no doubt it could be turned sideways and slid into the backseat. Uhhh, well not so much. Here is how I drove home on both 75 and 635. Probably not the smarted thing to do, but I NEEDED this table! I'll post pictures when it is finished. Thanks Rosa for such a great deal!