Horsin' Around

Landry had her first horseback riding lesson last Wednesday--or cowgirl lesson as she refers to it.

We got there REALLY early because 1) I'm always early and 2) I couldn't take Landry asking me every one-eighth of a second if it was time to go. Anyway, I'm glad we got there early because she got to go in the barnyard and feed the goats, chickens, sheep, and pigs.

This little baby goat followed her everywhere. He was so cute (in a gross dumb animal kind of way).



Doesn't this goat look like it's smiling?




Finally, it was time for the cowgirl lesson. Here she is introducing herself to Crash. Yeah, Crash. That'll calm a nervous momma.....




First steps....



This is Chance, her instructor, and maybe the nicest kid ever. As Landry was riding on Crash around the arena, Crash kept wanting to walk towards Chance (apparently Crash and Chance are BFFs and Crash has separation issues), so Chance had Landry get off the horse so he could show her how to show a horse "who's boss".



Then it was Landry's turn to be the boss. She did it fantastically and Crash completely obeyed her. (FYI, in case anyone's wondering--NO, they don't whip the horse--you can stop dialing PETA)



Back in the saddle....



After she got back on the horse and rode around the small arena a couple more times, it was time for the B-I-G arena. See how far away she went?



Then, Chance had her weave in and out of these pins. I was seriously impressed that Landry could handle the horse so well. She picked up the start, stop, back-up, and making him turn so quickly. (Granted, I'm sure this horse is WAY used to this and was basically on autopilot, but still.....)



Now she's just showing off



Leading him back to the barn

She had a blast! We're already looking forward to the next (cowgirl) lesson.

Tagged

Busted. I said on Monday that I was going to post everyday this week. I stuck to that promise about as well as I stick to diets--2 days. Pitiful. So, today I will post twice to make up for it.

Karen tagged me, so here goes.

What I was doing 10 years ago: (Ahhhh, 1998. This was one of my favorite years EVER!)

• Preparing for my college graduation
• Working as a waitress at Cagle Steaks in Lubbock
• Started dating Jeff in July
• Hung out with my best college girlfriends almost 24/7 the summer of '98
• Was running about 20 miles a week......(man, I miss being in that good of shape)

Five things on my to do list for today:

• Get my tires rotated
• Shower
• Try to find last night's episode of "The Office" somewhere (side note: I have when NBC decides to start a show at random times that Tivo doesn't understand!!)
• Think of something really tasty to make for dinner
• Play outside with the girls

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

• Okay, we all would pay off debt, give money to friends and family, give to charity, etc. So, I'm going to combine all of that into this one bullet point and make the rest of them fun ones. Cut me some slack, just let me pretend I'm a billionaire.
• I'd buy a lake house and a boat, and we would spend all of our weekends in the summer at the lake. Friends and family are welcome anytime. We'll have a huge barbecue every Satuday night, so y'all come on by!
• I would hire someone as their full-time job to teach me photography and how to use Photoshop. They have to be an expert, but be able to dumb it down enough that I can understand. If they want to work towards a generous bonus, they should also be willing to teach me how to get video from my video recorder to the computer.
• I would take my family and travel the world for several months. I'd take them out of school and we would go so many places.
• One of the places we would definitely go is the Australia Zoo. Totally not for me, but for Landry. It's the one place in the whole world she wants to go--and while we're there, we'll pick her up a job application.

Three of my bad habits:

• Not wearing my seat belt all of the time
• Stress and worry
• Pretty much everything I eat

Five places I have lived:

• Abilene, TX
• Lubbock, TX
• Edmond, OK
• Carrollton, TX
• Arlington, TX

Five jobs I have had:

• TCBY
• Cagle Steaks
• Bath & Body Works
• technical recruiter
• boring finance person
  

Three People I Want to Know More About:

• Tessa
• Traci
• Misty

**please play!!**

Happy Birthday, Linds

This is Lindsay (and me and Landry). She is my sister. Today is Lindsay's birthday.







Here are some things you may or may not know about Lindsay:


*She is a fabulous aunt to Landry and Korley. They have no idea her name is Lindsay--she is known as Lulu to them.



*She is one of the way coolest people I know despite the fact that she has a weird obsession with Celine Dion.




* She gets excited about things that I would never do--like go to Sweetwater's Rattlesnake Roundup.

*She has a dog named Norm.


*She is the best sister and (second) best daughter ;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LINDS!

What I'm Good At....

I can't sew, sing, run, dance, cook, paint, or garden.

But, if ever you are at a wedding and a votive candle comes flying through the air and into your lap seemingly ruining the dress you left the tags on because you were planning on taking it back to 'Department Store' because it was entirely too much money for one event, and really, it's NOT the size you want to be so why keep something so expensive.....then I'm the expert that can help.

Before you address the dress wax stains, first be sure to peel off any wax that splattered on your arms, face, hair, or any other unsuspecting innocent body parts. After you've determined that you don't have third degree burns and don't need extinguishing, leave the wedding reception. This is imperative. Really, you don't want people mistakingly thinking you're wearing the infamous *blue dress*. Ick...barf...blech....

Then, once you are home and have changed into fire retardent clothing, you can begin to remove the wax stains from your dress. It's very simple.

1) place a layer of paper towels under the fabric where the stain(s) is

2) place a layer of paper towels over the fabric where the stain(s) is

3) with your iron heated to the highest setting the fabric will tolerate, place the iron on top of the paper towel over the stain(s)

4) hold for 5-8 seconds, until the wax melts into the paper towel

5) lift the iron, cross your fingers, and take a peek to make sure the stain came up

Viola!

Before

After

Hi y'all

I can't tell you how many posts I have started that have said something like, "I can't believe how long it's been since I've last blogged", or, "I've been such a bad blogger lately", or, "yes, I'm still alive".......

You get the idea. I suck at blogging. So, I'm challenging myself to blog EVERY day this week (I know, shocking....). Truth is, I've had plenty to blog about, but not much time to actually sit down and write.

This past weekend, I took my annual spring girls' trip with my best college sorority friends. The past two years we have gone to Salado, so this year we decided to try out Granbury. We had a wonderful time shopping, eating, drinking, and doing a whole lot of visiting! We stayed at this cute bed and breakfast on the lake, and were blessed with PERFECT weather all weekend.



I got back Sunday in plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the day with my family. I helped Korley color a picture. I (once again) turned my head for ONE second and turn back to see Korley had colored her lips with the green ink pad. That girl--you seriously cannot take your eyes off of her for a second.



Later that afternoon, Jeff and I took the girls to the park.



Landry.....love this face!

Korley at age TWO!

Wow. I really should stop blogging--I am the worst updater. Korley has been 2 for 11 days now and I have yet to write her two-year-old update. Might as well do it now before I blink again and she is 3.

We celebrated on Thursday night with just our family, and then on Friday evening we took Korley to the Wiggly Play Center. The Wiggles is Korley's absolute favorite (or, "favourite" if you're a Wiggle) show. She loves the Wiggles and loves all of the characters. She had never been to the Wiggly Play Center, and I figured she would enjoy it. Um, understatement. SHE. HAD. A. BLAST! She was awestruck.

For the first 30 minutes or so all she did was stand in front of the big TV and watch an episode of The Wiggles.

But, it wasn't long before she found a playmate and ran and giggled with other kids.

And, shortly after she discovered that there was actually something else there besides The Wiggles on TV.....

Later that weekend, we met my parents for dinner and some play time at the park at Southlake Towne Square. Landry and Korley enjoyed just sitting on the cows. :)

There are so many things I want to remember about Korley at this age. I know I'll (unfortunately) forget most of them in time, but here are a few quirks about her at age 2:

--Her favorite foods are pancakes, vienna sausages, chicken nuggets, fruit snacks, apples, and bananas. But her ALL TIME favorite food is tomatoes (she calls them "tatoes"). I've never seen a person, child or adult, like tomatoes like she does. Usually, if we're at a Mexican food resaurant, she's munching on diced tomatoes while the rest of us are eating chips and salsa!

--She loves to watch The Wiggles, Elmo, and Doodlebops

--There is no such thing as "restricted access" to Korley. She will climb, pull, open, close, tear, rip, color on, [insert verb of your choice] things she's not supposed to.

--She's very friendly. She loves to wave to strangers and say "hi". Everytime she sees me (or any other family member) she'll say, "hi Mommy! How youuuuuuuu?" even if I just returned from the room after being gone a few seconds.

--I challenge anyone out there to take her on in a staring contest and win. You can't. When she gets in trouble for something she thinks she shouldn't be in trouble for, she will lock eyes with me and not let go! It's amazing. I've never been able to outlast her. She's very stubborn!

--She loves to sing. Some of her favorite songs are "Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Rock-a-bye Baby", "Wheels on the Bus", and anything from The Wiggles. :)

--She talks A LOT! She has always talked (babbled), but her vocabulary is really coming along. I can't even tell you how many words she actually can say--too many to count! She says the word "medicine" perfectly, but cannot for the life of her say Landry's name. She calls Landry "Sudu" (su-doo) or "Sulu" (su-lu). I have NO idea where she came up with this!

--She never gets tired of or loses fascination with bubbles. Every time she blows bubbles it's just as exciting as the first time.

--She still loves her "pappy" (pacifier), but relies on it less and less. Honestly, we could probably take it away from her today and she'd be fine; but, I'm not ready to let go of the sweet way she says "pappy".

Korley has brought so much joy to our already joyous lives! We love her so much and are so blessed to have her in our lives!

Korley is TWO today!

It's hard to believe that it's been two years since Korley was born; it just doesn't seem possible.

I'll write more about her in a later post (like this weekend), but for now here are a few pictures from today. (I would love to write more now, but I've been trying to figure out for the last two hours how to upload a video on my computer. Now it's late and I need sleep!)

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!!

First pic as a two-year-old

I'm TWO!!

Oh My Aching Sole

One of my New Year's resolutions (you know, one that didn't start out with "I want to lose 50 lbs by Jan. 15".....) was to wear heels more often. So far this year, I've managed to wear heels about 3x/week--pretty much to work and church. The past two days I should have broken my resolution.

Yesterday, on my way back from the gym during my lunch hour (NY Resolution #2), my car broke down. Completely. On the road. On an overpass. In a lane. No shoulder. I'll sum it up--waiting on tow truck for 2.5 hours on an overpass is not a good heel-wearing day.

Today HAS to be better, right?

So, I set out in my heels again today--my uncomfortable, but stylishly spring-y sandals. There should be no problems since I plan to be sitting at my desk most of the day. Guess I wasn't anticipating the 2pm fire drill that would require 7 flights of stairs, a trek through the parking lot, followed by 20 minutes of "making sure the building is evacuated" time.

Early Spring Resolution #1.....wear flip-flops more often.