Bar Floosies and Other Important Matters.

It has been awhile for the following reasons:

1. we moved in the dead of Summer. It's taken a bit to recoop.

2. School started. We are still recooping.

3. Laundry is/has and will always probably remain mountainous. Maybe.



We did break free of the chain of monotony and went on a weekend trip to Ruidoso, NM.  with my mother, father, sister and brother in laws. It is absolutely beautiful. The trees always always surprise me because they are:

1. Tall
2. Beautiful
3. green
4. wonderful
5. Pine smelling
6. fluffy and lovely
7. we have no (magnanimous) trees here in the barren desert of West Texas so I have to get my fill somewhere. Over and out.


We had a great great time and our cabin was soo nice!

I LOVE the main street there which is called "Midtown". It is so full of neat little shops, restaurants, cheeky bars and hangouts. I LOVE IT! :)

(Flowers actually grow in Ruidoso. Flowers, grass and trees are extra crispy in Texas.)

They also have tourist - y places (in which I am drawn like a magnet to) like the photo studio where you can totally dress up like you are in an old western and hold a big boy shot gun! (And a very special moonshine jug).

Who LOVES this? IIIII DDOO!!

My mo (MIL, who I love!) had this great idea and I am soo glad we did it because it was soo much fun!

I thought I'd share some shots with ya :)




I Love this one!
We all have such perty smiles! Isn't my SIL soo pretty!? Isn't my eeehh devastatingly handsome!?
Isn't my Mo rocking that dress!? Who parted my hair that day!?

My BIL (Sass) looks sceery here. Don't mess with him or you'll get ya self a noogie or a boogie. But you SHOULD let him teach you to play pool. I owe all my skillz to him! (Thanks, sass!)

(Pop, are you having a nap here, Wild Turkey at your side?) Hehe. Pesky. Pesky!

In his defense, this did take a while and it was a bazillion degrees up in there!

This is how we look on a normal day. Just keepin' it real.
When the booze runs out, we get antsy.
Just kiddin'.
Thorta.
;D

Look at my Mo here. She is a dead on shot! I can see right down the barrel of her gun!

Mo don't mess around!

Someone should teach me how to hold a firearm. Clearly, I need some help. Clearly.

My eeehhh looks devastatingly handsome.

I Love this one! I also love that somehow, The Duke made his appearance in our photo.

It made me feel so cool.

We have the same birthday. Me and The Duke.

It makes me feel so cool.


These pictures are forever memories of the wonderful, funny and good looking people I get to call family!

It makes me feel so lucky :)

Night ya'll! :)

My Littles

Today, 7 precious years ago I had a major surgery. I was 19 and the nurse couldn't give me enough red, cherry popcicles. I awoke the morning of June 29th, 2004 and trekked into the kitchen of our tiny pink home to retrieve my half eaten Taco Bell burrito from the fridge and click on Regis & Kelly. I loved Taco Bell when I was pregnant. I loved Regis & Kelly when I was pregnant.

Now? Not so much. Well, on the Taco Bell. I still really love Kelly ;D

I had been having contractions for a day a half before that morning but really never chalked it up to them being contractions. It's what happens when you're young and expecting. You know you're expecting and you know you're young, but you (well me) never expected that after 9 long months, a baby would come on outta there. I figured she was all good in there and I was okay with that.
     To my surprise (Ha!) she was ready. I blame Taco Bell. When my eeh has Taco Bell, it has the same effect on people. You want to evacuate the room. You want leave the premises. You want to offer some Pepto. After some obstacles with a small town doctor who had provided my entire prenatal care and who wanted to induce me asap and then get his golf on, I passed on him delivering. It was the right thing to do. The bastard.
     We drove home to Amarillo and was ushered right on in there. I was having a great time in my room laughing, visiting and staying on that nurse to keep a never ending stream of red popcicles coming right to my room. Bless her heart. I still love you, Nurse Angela. Thank you for your many runs to the freezer and for never judging me when I had a red, cherry pop kool aid smile.
      Our whole room was filled with family and I had a huge needle in my back. I'd have rather had that huge needle in there then the contractions happening just before. Talk about a pain in the rear.

Yuk. Yuk.

Before I knew it and before I could finish the episode of "Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica", that I was watchin', some alarms sounded, Nurse Angela rushed in (without a dadgum popcicle) and everyone suddenly became incapable of speech. I would ask and there would be no answer.

I don't like it when I don't get no answer.

I was wheeled back into the operating room. Green, peat colored paper blankets and gowns were being tossed around, a brave man was placing a mask over my mouth and stroking my hair. Why didn't anyone just tell me what was happening? What was the big secret?

I could have taken it. I would have taken it. Medical people: tell me next time!

I felt like I'd been unzipped. It was unusual to say the least, but no pain. I was walking on a cloud somewhere having a cherry popcicle. Suddenly, there was a quaint cry and a baby being lifted above the coverings. My baby. The very gift of my life had arrived and looked just like my sister.
    That day and all days after, my very young life changed in ways I never ever expected. I'd only had to care about me until 5:36pm on June 29th, 2004. I didn't believe myself capable until 5:36pm on June 29th, 2004. God gave me life on May 26th, 1985, but he gave me more life then I could hope for on June 29th, 2004 by blessing me with my girl.


Today, my baby turns 7. She has yet to loose her first tooth, she draws better than Picasso, is now wearing Love's Baby Soft because she's a big girl, wonders when she can drive the car (?!), loves sea shells, snail shells and all shells, loves jewelry with all her heart, writes mama and daddy the sweetest love letters, can't wait until she's a big 6th grader, loves her bike and scooter, would eat Ch-Fil-A every.single.day, and wants me to paint her bedroom "baby green".  I am one proud mama.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Precious girl. You've made my life.
I love you!!!



    



My "One Thousand Gifts" for June 27 and 28, 2011.

1: gnocchi.

2: my husband's freshly buzzed head.

3: cherry popcicles.

4: babies.

5: having things right where I need them.

6: my job.

7: my job.

8: The Breakfast Club. Molly, anyone?

9: Eggs in my salad, which should be gross but isn't.

10: paint colors! How will I ever decide?

11: landscaping. Peonies will infiltrate.

12: Real Tramas of the ER on Discovery Channel. Wowza. Don't watch this when you're about to eat chicken. You won't end up having chicken.

13: John Travolta. Man alive.

14: potted plants. They are so soothing to me, which should probably be dorky, but isn't.

15: fax machines. So incredibly handy. So capable. It's uncanny, really.

16: cucumbers. A Summer staple and soo good with Italian dressing fo' lunch.

17: chicken fried rice. I can't get the good stuff here.

18: The smell of peaches when you walk right in the fron door of the grocery store. Marketing at it's finest!

19: The smell of fresh wood. When we were little in the summertime, my mom would make us get out of the pool (sacrilege!) and go to the home improvement store with her. Not only did they have THE BEST air conditioning known to man, it smelled very, very good in there.

20: homemade pickles. Nothing is better!  :)


Blessings!

K

Whoa Nelly!

Goodness. Here it is, Monday.

How did THIS happen. Noone was ready for it. Noone wanted you, Monday. Least of all, my boss, who is EXTRA crabby in your presence. I'm afraid you (Monday) will cast a shadow on my unusually upbeat outlook and that ain't cool.

We swam this weekend. All weekend. Literally.

I'm burned. Burned much.

What is up with sunscreen? We used 100 SPF. If this not ENOUGH anymore? It is so so hot here in WT. I don't think we've ever holed up indoors like we have so far this summer. It's just physically not okay to be out there. (Well, according to me! Ha!)

We also had two Birthday parties! My babygirl turns 7 on Wednesday! Not sure how/when she sprouted from the tiny, smooshy, toothless doll into a demure (Ha!), mature, long legged cuddle bug.

I HATE thinking of her growing up. It's all to much. Why is HER childhood going by SO much faster then my own did? My 7th year of life lasted 3 long years!

Because the weekend counts to, 30 "One Thousand Gifts".

1: Swimming pools. Chlorine. Ill fitting swim suits. Precious, excited flailing kiddos.

2: Brand new mascara. Plentiful black color. Lovely lashes!

3: Sprinklers. Even more when our area's water is rationed and it means so much more to jump through.

4: Peonies. I know I've already listed this one, but I really am in love.

5: Birthday cake! The colors, the sticky and sweet smell of buttercream icing, the smudges of frosting across chubby little sweet cheeks.

6: My Eeeh in a fisherman's hat with a chin strap. It's a beautiful and really funny thing!

7: Sun warmed sidewalks on your feet. Made even better with warm sprinkler water.

8: Towels right out of the dryer. Snuggle fresh!

9: The smell of sunscreen. Coconutty and summery!

10: Cool air conditioning on hot, sunburnt skin. It's the best!

11: flip flops. Be still my heart.

12: The Pioneer Woman - Ree Drummond. I love the chick, she's mad cool.

13: My babygirl in her super cute swim suit. It has ruffles and polka dots and she looks soo sweet!

14: Raised garden beds or any garden beds! I am THRILLED  to hopefully get to plant and garden with my mother in law next Spring! HeLLOOO 6 lb. cucumbers!

15: Jalepeno Bacon Poppers. Goodness.

16: Vintage cook books. I love the ones written in by home cooks from soo long ago. I imagine kiddos circling her legs, a hungry husband and life happening. Now I'm standing here doing the same. It's really beautiful.

17: Coach Beiste from Glee. I really, really like her. 

18: Rosettes. They are all the sudden on EVERYTHING  and so so cute!

19: Baby blankets. The softest thing on Earth.

20: Snack bar nachos. So bad for you, what with the processed cheese product  (yum) and canned chili and jalepenos.

21: Hoop earrings. The gaudiest of them all! Bring on the colors!

22: The color "Melon". Not quite pink, not quite orange -ish, but I'll go for it everytime!

23: Sylvester Stallone as Rocky. Swoon. "ADRIAN!!"

24: TRL. As in Total Request Live. I miss 1999 MTV. Where are you?

25: Church bells. So so beautiful and they always make me stop what I'm doing to listen.

26: Rolly pollys- is there a cuter insect on planet Earth?

27: Confetti. Goodness.

28: School lunches. I had lunch with my baby during the last school year and it was transported right back to 3rd grade with the sectioned trays, square pizza and kid squirting his eye with juice from an orange. Little whippersnappers.

29: Walking through tall, green grass. Blades of grass between your toes! No stickers allowed!

30: My nana's smile. I miss it with all my heart. Love you, Nana. <3


Be blessed friends,
K

Did you ever get busted for boppin'?

First and foremost, Happy Friday! It's been a great week, which only leads me to believe next week will more than likely make up for that fact (boss has been out of the office) but, I'm ready! I've gotten alot done and even got a little ahead so WHOOP!

  Last night my brother and sisters and our guys..well..my brother doesn't have a guy of course, but didn't bring a girl..so..wha? Nevermind.

Anyway, WE all went to our favorite neighborhood Chili's to celebrate the ridiculous amount of birthdays that are all clumped in together here at the end of June. We should do a study of why it is that so many came forth in the month of June..or maybe not because we probably don't want to know.

Mom? Is June a favorite month? Is giving birth in the dead of Summer a good/your idea?

Self: why did you also give birth in June? Huh? HUH?! Nevermind.

When we all travel out together someplace, we like to say it's another round of "The Clampets (who were the Beverly Hillbillies) go to             .  It's not that we are obnoxious or anything, it's more that we are bumpkins.

Truly.

I heard once that you should "embrace the natural chaos in life".

Welp. It's not hard on this end. The "natural chaos" flows freely around us usually and our visit to Chili's was not exempt.

   We arrived and were seated in a long booth. I had to sit by my sister Kayla, who gets a little excited when we take her in public. She lacks restraint, but we still love her. Upon scooting in the booth she entertained us with a little ditty that included a reenactment of The Cotton Eye Joe. It was sweet, but misplaced. I pinched her arm skin and threatened her like only a mother can. She laughed it off like only a baby sister can and ordered a rack of ribs.
   My sister Bolynne tries to act mature and reasonable. She's so cool. Like, totally. It could be that she is just trying to act like she had no choice in attending dinner and can't believe she is mingling with this group. Like, totally. She left with BBQ sauce on her arm and I didn't tell her. Take that and stir it with your coolness, beefy.  ;D
    We ended our birthday supper (of course) by letting our waitress know that we indeed, had THREE birthdays at our table. The whole lot of them showed up at our table and made small talk about who's birthday was who's and names. OUT OF NOWHERE, this very young, very small guy yells louder than I've ever heard anyone yell and I jumped out of my skin.

I knew it was going to happen. I saw it coming, but this guy had to have extra capacity lungs to have gotten that out.

After I recovered from my mini heart attack, they sang a neat birthday song and gave us THREE of those enormous lava molten chocolate thingies as a birthday gift.

So. Good.

When we were leaving, I'm sure I saw the waitress do the dance from that flashmob commerical where the guy is the only one doing it because he doesn't have the fastest and most up - to - date cell service. You know the one. Bless her heart. She was fabulous!

Happy Birthday to my babygirl on the 29th, my sister on the 26th and my bro on the 20th!!!!

Now, just for weekend kicks, I love the 80's. I feel very cheated in life that I basically missed the decade as I was born in 1985 and from my experience a person doesn't really remember anything before age 5, so I jumped on the early 90's bandwagon and grew up with Look Who's Talking, Mrs. Doubtfire and Garth Brooks.

That said, in my free time, I like to soak up all the 80's I can. Most recently, I've discovered a love for Kenny Loggins. Am I alone here? He's pretty groovy. His hair was/is puffy and fabOlous.

I've also have been listening to Journey. Am I alone here? When I hear the opening to "Don't Stop Believin", it doesn't leave my psyche for 10 days. I find myself yodeling " juust a smaall town gahl, born and raised in ssoouuthh Detroittt". Then, I find out the GLEE guys covered it.

What more could I ever ask for in life?

http://youtu.be/5WxPyUzWSPA





My ten "One Thousand Gifts" for June 24,2011 -

1: pop culture. Gosh, I love it.

2: Glee. Something that many don't like, but I am drawn to like a moth to light. I heart Finn and
Rachel 4 evr.



3: Sunrise. How can you not stop to look at the colors? Mornings are precious right now because is semi-cool outdoors and you actually want to stand there!

4: Movie quotes. I am a Scene It master. Wanna play?

5: Dioramas. My baby made us one and put on a show using it and her Barbie. She colored the lid to a shoe box to be a park with lots of colorful flowers and green grass. When she removed the lid, she revealed her interpretation of New York City (as experienced to her by Sharpay Evans) (she is a whippersnapper after her mama's own heart, for I, at the ripe age of 14 determined I was destined to become an MTV VJ. Ahem.) Such imagination!



6: Hot pink. The color is stinkin' fabulous. I'm addicted and afflicted.

7: Vibram Fivefingers: These shoes are unbelievable. I have been such a die hard flip flop fan since 1999 that I never surface to even consider another footwear. My eeh talked me into giving these a try and they rock. I'm never looking back. (But I still have very mad love for my flips. )

 Mine are PINK!! :)

8: Destiny's Child. Don't you miss them? I do. ie: Bills, Bills, Bills.   "Triflin' good fo nothin' type of brotha".



9: Choral music. All music. I love it with all my heart and always have.

10: Amarillo, Tx. Enough said.

Happy weekend!

Be Blessed,

K

Goodness Gracious

I have recently come across a fellow blogger who is just the most beautiful writer.

   Sometimes it can be hard to convey actual emotion in written words on a page. I personally think that is the goal with writing. If you can make a reader "feel" your words, much like a singer with a beautiful voice can make you "feel" the music (helllooo Carrie Underwood! (sorry, I love her), then you can bless someone with your words, which is very much how I feel when I read Anne Voskamp's site, aholyexperience.com.
 

  She recently had a book published called, "One Thousand Gifts". The book she says, is a "dare to live fully right where you are" in life.

Anne Voskamp-
    aholyexperience.com


This caught my eye big time.

  I have always been in a big hurry.

 A hurry to figure all things out.
 
 A hurry to have this, be there and do it flawlessly (yeah, right).

  A hurry to have a family of my own.

  A hurry to make all the money in the world.

   A hurry to make that chocolate cheesecake, while wrapping up 32 loads of laundry and  refinishing an end table.

  This is one of those life lessons where I had to actually find out that I was majorly wrong (shucks).
  Not only was (and still am, but working on it) I alienating my sweet (extremely patient) husband, but I found that sometimes I was majorly annoyed because I set (for the most part) really unrealistic goals and was really hard on myself when I couldn't pull it off.

  What was/is the dadgum hurry? I'm 26.

  I feel like God is working in so many areas of me that it's hard to pin point one specific area to write about, but I do know this hit me in a big way.

 "Slow down", He tells me. "Enjoy all of what you have now".

   Why is that so hard for me to accept? What if I don't get to do all I want to?

   I should be thrilled to throw up my hands and call it. To walk away from the Tide and Dawn and chocolate cheesecakes and watch Swamp People on the Discovery Channel with my eeeh. To watch my baby's hands hard at work in a pretend world of Barbie and her focused, intense brow as she sketches pooh on brightly colored construction paper.

   Alas, I am a work in progress and will always be. I'm thankful that each day is a brand new beginning and a chance for renewal. Thank You, Father.

Anne has challenged me, like so many other women, to slow it all waaayyy down and appreciate, take time to notice and SAVOR the millions of tiny, intricate moments of our lives. At first, I thought this was quite a challenge, but I am coming to see how preciously blessed I was to run into her site and book. I've been doing this for a while now, but plan to start documenting here so that not only can I remember, I hope to bless even one busy mama, friend or reader to give it a try and feel you heart fill up with not only thankfulness for what he has given us, but a love for each detail of you life and appreciation for every small thing under God. Anne challenges a list with "One Thousand" things, feelings, happenings and situtations. I plan to record 10 daily until I've reached "One Thousand". Feel free to link up, leave a comment or Facebook me if you'd like to participate!

June 23, 2011

1: My baby crawling into bed with us and feeling her little arms grasp mine so tightly.

2: my husband's rough, callused and blessed hands.

3: Peonies, which I recently discovered at HEB and am seriously in love with.

4: Green, growing grass. We are having a drought this Summer in West Texas and green, flourishing yards are few and far between.

5: Cold, hot pink fleshed watermelon. (No seeds, please!)

6: My baby's dirty fingers curled around a watermelon rind getting every last bit.

7: my sister Beefy's laugh, which is just like mine, but hers. She always thinks I'm funny and I love her for that.

8: My sister Kayla. I am thankful for an opportunity to influence her life. I hope I do.

9: Cherry Starpops from Dairy Queen. Seriously. So, so good. Try one.

10: My stove/kitchen's hood vent. We are leasing right now and have been in the same home almost three years. We JUST discovered the thing. How many smoke-outs could have been avoided, you say? There is noo telling! Get this: it even has a light!


Be Blessed!

K