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!

Two Pics

James and I don't have many pictures together, so here is one from Saturday. And this is after we are stuffed to the brim with fondue. All we can think of is how we can't wait to get home and stop sucking in our belly's!

Reminiscing

Yesterday morning I decided to start year 24 off on the right foot by going for a work-out. I got out of bed and dressed in whatever work-out clothes I happened to find first. On my way out the door, James made a comment about how "cute" I looked. Thats when I looked at myself and realized that I was wearing a shirt, capri pants, sports bra, socks and tennis shoes that James had given me for my birthday last year. I have tons and tons of clothes that I always mix and match for work-outs. What are the odds that everything I was wearing yesterday were things that I had gotten exactly one year ago? I said so to James who then began to laugh and asked "do you remember what you did when I gave you all of those things?"

Back-up to April 25th of last year: I was living in an apartment with a whopping 420 square feet 2 hours away from James. He was wearing a huge boot, using crutches and toting two huge buckets everywhere he went to soak his foot every couple of hours. Oh yeah and we had only begun to see each other following the divorce about three weeks earlier. He drove to Tyler to take me out to dinner for my birthday. He brought in two huge bags full of birthday goodies for me. Among them, the clothing mentioned above. With each item I opened I smiled, said "I love it, thank you" and so forth. After opening everything I began to cry and told James that no matter what he couldn't buy me back, this relationship would never work, he may as well leave, yadda, yadda, yadda. I still wasn't convinced that we should reconcile. When he returned to Dallas, he didn't take my gifts with him and I didn't open them again for weeks.

Now fast-forward to yesterday: Could our life be any different? As I spent my half-hour on the eliptical I couldn't help but reminisce about this past year. Of course on the surface, it is obvious that things are different. But it is so much more. A year ago, I didn't know if James and I would ever be able to share our lives together, I didn't know if he would be committed to me forever, I didn't even know if he really loved me. What I did know was that I didn't trust him and I was scared out of my mind! Today, I have no doubt that James is committed to me, that he is in love with me and that we will share a wonderful, beautiful life together. I am no longer scared of him or of loving him.

What a difference one year can make! I think even if I hadn't of had that work-out, I still would have started year 24 on the right foot because I started it with James.

BIG BOY

One of Riley's favorite things to do at our house is look out the front window. I always think he looks so cute and more like a boy than a baby when he is standing there.

Interesting Stuff

We have some interesting stuff going on around here, thanks to our wonderful first-time home buyers tax break. We may not agree with everything going on in Washington, but we certainly agree with the extra cash that came our way!

Hopefully all will be revealed in the next week or so. Love being a homeowner!