31 of 365 My Dinner

30 of 365 My New Journal

I've decided I'm going to start journaling. There are so many random thoughts that go through my head all day long and perhaps if I write them down it will help get some perspective on a few things.

29 of 365 Stunning

Not sure where she got her looks from, but I know I didn't look like this at 13!!!! This girl can frustrate me like no other, but I wouldn't change her for the world.

28 of 365 TGIF

As I was sitting at my desk around 10:30 this morning, I decided to ask my boss if I could take a half day off. This week has been very challenging and I just needed to take some time off to try and get rid of this headache. So I came home and watched a few episodes of...

I started watching Dexter sometime in December and I absolutely love this show. There are five seasons and I'm currently halfway finished with season five.

Then after settling the kids into their different Friday activities, my husband and I went to Freebirds World Famous Burrito...

I am almost inclined to say that I like Freebirds more than Chipotle.

After dinner we drove over to Barnes & Noble where I whipped out my Amazon KINDLE and starting reading this wonderful book my small group told me about...

I had no shame reading my Kindle amongst a bunch of Nook lovers. Can't we all just get along???

Next stop was the movie theater where we saw this movie with my favorite actor... (The Rite with Sir Anthony Hopkins)

As we're walking to the car after the movie, my husband noticed a bumper sticker that caught his attention. He quickly grabbed is phone and took a picture and exclaims, "This is my picture of the day."

We are home now and I'm wearing my new comfy shoes made by N-A-P. I have many of their products (blankets, pillows, bathrobe, etc.) and these shoes were marked down to $10 and I couldn't resist...

(Did you notice I got a pedicure since last time I posted a picture of my feet??)

Well we have a busy weekend ahead so it's time to get to bed and gear up for all the craziness that is about to start and consume our lives the next 8-12 weeks.

27 of 365 I Got Nothin'

The last couple of days I have been battling a wicked headache. Yesterday was one of those days that I didn't feel like thinking about or searching for that perfect photo opp so I took this picture instead:

I have felt like a blank piece of paper most of this week. I had nothing more to give than the bare minimum. But today I feel somewhat normal and looking forward to a busy weekend.

26 of 365 Bent Out of Shape

This is what my wedding ring looks like

And this...

Apparently when I drive, I have a death grip on the steering wheel. Think I need to invest in a stress ball and grip that while I'm driving.

25 of 365 Tiny Bubbles

This is what happens when you give a blonde a bottle of body soap and she decides to take a bubble bath...

24 of 365 Bbbbball Bbbball Bbbball

My oldest daughter's basketball team won their first game this evening. Great game girls. Lots of weird plays and one of those included my daughter catching the ball with her knees. As an added bonus if you look to the left of the picture, you will see her boyfriend.

23 of 365 What's For Dinner????

I am often asked this question about 30 seconds after walking in the front door after a long day at work. Most of the time my response is, "Whatever you want to make."

I decided to finally tackle the grocery store this morning because I am so sick of eating out and hearing my kids complain there is no food in the house. I went ahead and picked up the ingredients to make this pasta dish...YUMMO.

While making it, my youngest says to me, "You know I hate this dish. I will be eating cereal tonight."

Good more for me....

22 of 365 I'm A Big Kid Now

My youngest daughter turned 9 in November. She just learned to ride a bike last weekend. Don't judge...we are very busy and 9 months out of the year it's too freaking hot to do anything outdoors in Texas. The girl can do a mean cartwheel and round off but up until last weekend couldn't ride a bike without training wheels.

She had some money from birthday and Christmas leftover so she wanted a new bike. We have two old bikes from my oldest daughter but who wants to ride an old bike? My husband and I decided since she made such good grades this 6 weeks we would pitch in and pay the difference of the cost of the bike. So here she is on her brand new bike (which now has a flat tire so she's back to riding the old one until daddy goes to the store for a new tube)

21 of 365 Henna...Or Is It????

My oldest daughter is taking Hindi as a foreign language. They often get to do fun things like sample Indian food, go on field trips to see Indian films, and have someone do Henna on their hands.

Last night my husband was admiring the nice Henna that was on her hand. He asked if they had someone come in and do that for the whole class. At which she replied, "Nope. We were really bored so my friend drew on my hand with a Sharpie." Nice....

20 of 365 Some Closure

Yesterday I bought a shadow box and Brailey put some of Sara's things in it. Inside the box is the blanket she and Sara used to cuddle with, a few pictures of Sara, the collar she wore for the last year and 11 years worth of grooming records. It was theraputic for us, but Brailey cried herself to sleep. She misses Sara so much. Breaks my heart to see my baby cry.

19 of 365 Got Cereal???

So today a friend of mine needed some ideas on what to cook for dinner. She was taking a poll on Facebook as to what people were making for dinner tonight. I posted this..."Pop Tarts...duh!!!" I think many people think I'm joking when I tell them my kids eat Pop Tarts and/or cereal for dinner. IT'S NOT A JOKE PEOPLE!!!!

To prove I'm really a cereal fanatic, please see below picture:

I STRESS if I have less than 10 boxes of cereal in my pantry. Growing up my mom always bought different types of cereal and we probably had 5 or 6 different boxes of cereal in the pantry at any given time.

A dear friend of mine who sometimes house and pet sits for us was laughing at me (with me) because next to the cereal is all of our alcohol (another picture for another blog). Yes, we are such party animals that we bought all of this alcohol a year ago for a bachelor party and it's STILL sitting in our pantry. I would much rather drink a Coke or sweet tea than drink alcohol.

18 of 365 Scrappin'

This evening several of us got together and started scrappin' and putting together a little memory verse book. I'm not quite finished with mine so once it's all perfected, I will take a picture of it. Had a great time with the ladies just talking, talking, talking...

17 of 365 Pedicure Anyone???

I really need a pedicure!!!!

16 of 365 A Day In The Life Of A DIVA...

So my Sunday consisted of NOTHING I had planned today. Originally I was going to take the girls to church and then go to brunch with friends. We stayed up late last night and when I got up it was rainy and cold. The girls slept in so this is how my day went...

Cuddled on the couch with the dog and cat...


Watched my daughter pick on the cats. She was pretending to be pregnant with the cat. The cat was not amused...


Since I had no desire to get dressed today, I went and grabbed lunch in my pj's...


After lunch I sat back down on the couch and read (have I mentioned how much I LOVE my Kindle)...


After watching the Seahawks get their butts spanked and a much needed nap, I decided to do something really weird and unexpected. Something I generally don't do in January. Something my husband will be so happy to see (feel). I shaved my legs...


And finally a big crock pot full of chicken 'n dumplings for dinner...

15 of 365 She Really Isn't That Bad

So it's been almost a week since Sara has been gone. In this past week I have really started to bond with my Miniature Schnauzer named Minnie. My husband and kids brought home Minnie for my 30th birthday. At the time I was already depressed about turning 30 and when they brought her home, all I could think of was, "Great. Something else for me to take care of." Sara and Minnie bonded immediately and became the best of friends. I, however, thought she was just a nuisance. So for the last 6 years I basically fed her, took her to the vet, took her to the groomers but never really loved her.

Last Sunday that all changed. Minnie has been at my constant side for the last week. I slept on the air mattress with her the first 4 nights after Sara's passing. When my back and neck couldn't take sleeping on the air mattress anymore, I begged my husband to let her sleep in the bedroom with us. My husband is more of a cat lover and will do anything for his cats, except let them sleep with us. I told him I couldn't bear for her to sleep in the kennel alone but I didn't trust her to sleep in the living room with the two cats. Talk about a big party in the living room. He agreed but said she COULD NOT sleep on our bed. So I grabbed her dog bed and a leash. She immediately laid on her bed and I held the leash so she couldn't go anywhere. She is now trained and doesn't need to use the leash when she's in our room. She goes straight to her bed and to sleep.

Today I took Minnie to the groomers to get cleaned up. I sat around and talked with the groomers and we all had stories to tell about Sara and now we get to spoil Minnie like no other dog.

14 of 365 You've been a bad bad girl

Just proves that you are never too old to get put in the corner. You act like a two year old, you get treated like a two year old.

13 of 365-It's Raining Zebras

My youngest LOVES zebras. She got so much zebra stuff for Christmas that it looked like a zebra had thrown up in our house (zebra brush, zebra flat iron, zebra blow dryer, zebra gymnastics leo, zebra rainboots). Anyway, you get the idea. This morning when I got up she was all dressed and ready for school in her zebra attire.

12 of 365 Brrr...it's cold

My oldest daughter practicing outside when it's 20 degrees outside. We didn't make her do the 100 free throws cuz it was coooollllllddddd

11 of 365- I've found me a new love!!!

I just discovered Pretzel M&M's....'Nuff said

10 of 365 BLUE HAIR!!!!!

My daughter wanted to have her friends dye her hair black. She just wanted the bottom half done. Being the cool mom that I am, I let them do it. It didn't quite turn out black...

9 of 365- RIP Sara 1-05-00 to 1-09-11

Sunday, January 9, 2011 was a very difficult day for our family. We had to put our 11 year old Scottish Terrier to sleep. Sara was the BEST dog anyone could ask for. I could go on for hours and hours about how much we loved her. It was devastating to everyone, especially for my 13 year old. My mom used to breed Scottish Terriers and she gave us Sara for my daughter's 2nd birthday. Sara came all the way from Washington State to be with us in Texas. My daughters lost one of their very best friends on Sunday, but I am at peace with knowing Sara is no longer in pain and she is barking up a storm keeping someone else awake at night.

I also want to thank all of my family and friends for their thoughts and prayers. Many people called and texted me offering their sympathy. A couple of people even came by to bring us flowers and check on us. My family is blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people. We love all of you!!!

This photo was taken about 5 minutes before she left us.

8 of 365- I have a TEENAGER

My oldest is officially 13 years old. We went to the local bakery who makes the BEST cakes. This is the cake she picked out. It was red velvet with butter cream frosting...YUMMO

7 of 365- BFF's since 2nd Grade

My oldest daughter's birthday dinner with her BFF. A lot of sugar and caffeine were consumed that evening which made for some great laughs with 2 great kids.

6 of 365- On the Border

After a much stressful day at work, I met several friends for drinks and appetizers. I highly recommend the trio dip appetizer.

5 of 365- Practice Practice Practice

Santa brought this for my oldest daughter. It took my husband and father in law over 8 hours to put this together, but it was all worth it in the end. We are encouraging her to shoot 100 free throws every night. We'll see how long that lasts.

4 of 365- First WIN!!!!

Final score of the 7th grade basketball team's FIRST win of the season. The girls have improved so much and I have faith they will be a tough competitor next year.

3 of 365- Basketball girl

Okay... so this is a picture of a picture. My oldest daughter loves basketball and we love watching her play basketball.

2 of 365- See what I can do

She is trying to show us how she can hold a straw with just her lips. This child is CRAZY, but I love her craziness. She always keep us laughing. Thanks Tara and Tony for sharing her...

1 of 365- He loves his iPad

Here we go again... Last year I tried to do a photo blog and failed miserably at it. A friend of mine kept up with her photo blog last year and even had it printed into a book. Since I have no desire to scrapbook anymore, I thought this may be a cool way to save my thoughts and memories for my girls.

So here goes...

A lot of people don't believe me when I tell them my husband sleeps with his iPad. Well here is the proof (and notice the remote control doesn't even get its own pillow)