Bon Voyage

As usual, I really had bigger blogging plans this week.

However, my busy social schedule laundry and such got in the way.

We're leaving tomorrow afternoon for part 1 of our trip.

We're taking the kids to the grandparents' house in Dallas, and then Friday Jeff and I are off to Austin for our annual lake weekend with my best college girlfriends. Ahhh, one of my favorite things of the year to do.

On Sunday, we're embarking on part 2. We're going to stay my BFF and her husband who live near Galveston. So looking forward to getting to hang out with Kristen and Scott!

Then, on Monday, we leave Galveston for our cruise. Part 3! (By the way, Kara, we're going to Cozumel and Progreso.)

I think I have packed everything in my house.

By the way, is 7 pair of shoes too much for a 5-day cruise?

Yeah, I didn't think so either.

I've been racing around all night trying to get stuff together and I'll be darned if two of the neighborhood kids didn't come over tonight and make the biggest mess in the house.

There's a little girl who lives down the street that Landry likes to play with.

I'm okay with this, but she tows around her baby sister (who's 2).

I'm okay with this as well, except baby sister came weilding a sippy cup full that had NO valve and was full of Dr. Pepper.

I'm okay with this, too, (even though Dr. Pepper? for a two-year-old?) except she apparently was doing some sort of airplane propeller move and got Dr. Pepper all over Korley's bed.

Ugh.

Anyway, I'll probably be taking a little blog break while we're away, and I'm sure will have a huge, big fat post once I come back.

Have a great week!

Next Monday.....

Jeff and I will be.....

participating in activities directed by Julie,

sipping drinks prepared by Isaac,

sailing the seas courtesy of Captain Stubing,

and I'm guessing Gopher will be on board as well doing his....um....hmmm....pursing??

What DID that guy do?

NERD ALERT, NERD ALERT!!!

I'm going to talk about books again.

First of all, thanks to all of you who gave me book suggestions. And, special thanks to all of you have have "de-lurked" to give suggestions. :) Really, thank you!

I'm planning on reading most of your suggestions (some I've already read). In fact, I've already ordered 4 of the books from Amazon (the cheap used ones). Not that there is ANY WAY that I'll ever get through 4 books on a 5-day cruise, but I'll eventually read them.

I love Jodi Piccoult books, too. I've really liked all of them that I have read with the exception of The Tenth Circle. The Tenth Circle was kind of weird and definitely a diversion from some of her other books. If you haven't read it, my recommendation is to not.

I'm glad I got your suggestions, though, because usually I just browse Barnes & Noble until I find something that looks interesting and I buy it. I'm totally the "judge a book by its cover"-type. However, last time I did that it totally back-fired on me.

I bought Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. I bought it because I'm a sucker for memoirs, and the title caught my attention. I thought it would be funny. It was T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E. It was gross, dark, disturbing, dysfunctional, and icky. I have NEVER stopped reading a book before (I even fought my way through the uber-boring The Fountainhead...all 450 million pages), but Scissors? I slammed shut and never looked back. I would never recommend a book less.

Last night I was at my friend Stephanie's house looking through her books. She has tons of books. She has all of the Jodi Piccoult books, so I borrowed some that I haven't read yet. She was has a bunch of "classics" that she was trying to get me to take and read. Uh, not interested. I rarely read a "classic" that I understand love. I really liked Wuthering Heights when I had to read it in college, but at this point in my life, spare time to read is a luxury and I don't want to waste it on classics.

Anyway, enough rambling!

Happy reading to you all! And, if you run across anything that you've loved reading--leave me a comment about it!

HELP ME.....

if you can.

My dear blog readers, I need your suggestions.

Jeff and I are going on vacation in a couple of weeks and I need some book recommendations.

While I appreciate any and all suggestions, here's a little bit about my reading preference:

** I'm ashamedly not much of a "book" person. I'm ashamedly more of a "TV" person. That being said, I don't really want a book that "starts out slow, but gets good after 100 pages". Uh uh. If it's not good by page 5, I'm done.

**I've pretty much hated almost all Oprah book club books. They generally have too many pages, too many hard words, and too much thinking involved (i.e. Anna Karenina or The Poisonwood Bible). I don't want to need a dictionary handy to read a piece of fiction. I know all of the words that I want to know.

**I want a good book, but not a "heavy" book. Meaning, I don't want to be sad that Bill lost his family in a car accident, his house burned down, his dog ran away and he was layed-off from his job all in the same week.

**Please, please, please don't tell me to read the Twilight or Harry Potter books. I KNOW that they're the best books that have ever been written in the history of history and I promise to read them some day, but vampires and wizards don't belong in my pina colada/Carribbean sun/reggae- music- background ambience.

So, there you have it.

Any suggestions?

Truly **Lazy** Summer Days

I have a true confession to make.

Last night Jeff and I took the kids out to dinner. The girls had on cute summery sundresses.

We got home past bedtime and we were all tired. So, I sent the girls to bed in their sundresses.

(Confession not over.)

Then, this morning we woke up and were running a little late for church.

Guess what they wore.......

Summer Days

The trampoline and the water hose.....

Is there anything more fun?

Chicka Wow Wow

Korley has her own little language. She mispronounces a lot of words, but don't try to argue with her that she's saying it incorrectly--you'll never win. (See "twisty spinny")

Lately, she has been watching a couple of movies that she has retitled and unless you know what she's asking for, you will never figure it out.

She refers to "Alvin and the Chipmunks" as "Chicka Wow Wow". There is one line in that entire movie where one of the chipmunks says, "bow chicka wow wow"--so, it only makes sense to her that this is what the movie's called.

Also, she likes "The Jungle Book". However, she calls this "Hey There, Secily". Secily is our dear friends' little girl and Korley thinks instead of singing "Bare Necessities" that Baloo is singing directly to Secily.

Ah, three-year-olds--so much fun!

A Week's Worth of Stuff!

I'm long overdue for a post. I got back to Lubbock Sunday after being in the Metroplex for over a week.

Again, I'll tell most of it through pictures--and warning, if pictures aren't your thing, skip this post--there are a lot of them!!

Last weekend was supposed to be my 15 year high school reunion. Unfortunately, it flopped and was cancelled, but we did get together with two of my favorite Wylie Bulldogs, Ryan and Tim.


Actually, Tim is a youngin and graduated a year behind me. So, here is the official class of '94 reunion pic. (We're doing the Wylie "W" sign--it's like a gang)


For our "reunion", the guys went and played golf and the girls went for mani/pedis and to see "The Proposal". Then, we all met up and went to dinner at Joe T Garcia's. We had a great time!




Jeff had to go back to Lubbock the day after the "reunion" and I stayed in the Metroplex with the girls. Our 9th wedding anniversary was on July 1. We had to celebrate apart. :(

I stayed in Dallas because Landry had horse camp all of last week. Landry loves horse camp and loves getting to be among the horses and barn animals for a week. (side note.....I don't get it)

Anyway, her "rodeo" was on Friday. Jeff had come back into town at this point and we all went out to watch her ride in the rodeo.

Korley was there......and was hot.

Daddy was there....and was hot.

PopPop was there......and was hot.

Brady was there......and was hot.

Gigi was there......and was hot.

Korley enjoyed playing with the goat.....who was also hot.

And, she enjoyed playing with this little boy......who is explaining to Korley how hot he is.

Here is Landry riding Jett. True story--Landry is not hot. Seriously, I don't know how the child stayed out in the Frisco heat all day, every day, but she did and didn't complain about it at all.

The day after camp was the Fourth of July. (another side note--wouldn't it be nice to move the fourth of July to a less hot day? Say the fourth of May? Then we could have the fourth of May and Cinco de Mayo back-to-back? Let's start a petition!)

Anyway, Landry had spent the night with an old neighbor friend the night before, so it was just Jeff, Korley and I together on the morning of the fourth. We went to the parade in my in-law's neighborhood. I was expecting a small little parade with a bunch of kids riding their bikes, but it was actually a really neat and fun parade!

Then, after the parade, the country club across the street had bounce houses, a band, and a bunch of family friendly stuff to do so we went to the party for a while.

That afternoon, we went to Glenn and Jonnie's house, who is Jeff's brother and sister-in-law. Unfortunately, I have no pics (shame on me!), but we had a blast swimming at their house and grilling GREAT food!

The evening of the fourth, we went to the Anderson's house and then on to watch the fireworks in Frisco. We were so happy we got to see them on this trip, even though it wasn't near long enough!

Jake and Korley sang "Jesus Loves Me" together. So adorable and funny.

We spent a lot of time waiting on the firework show to start.

The kids waited patiently for a while....

And then created their own entertainment.

Then, Jeff showed them how to do the "robot".

Then, Landry showed us how it's really done

Then, Jake showed us how to breakdance. He's got some sic moves.

And, Korley was clearly unimpressed by all of this.

LESLIE!!! HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY!!!

Today is Leslie's 30th birthday!

Leslie is my dear blog friend, whom I have met a couple of times, but knew her long before via blog.

Here's what I love about blogging......

One day a long time ago when I first started blogging, I was bored (and may or may not have been at work) and was looking for an interesting blog to read. That's when I stumbled across Leslie's. Her post for that day had something to do with "Alias", and I knew that we must have been kindred spirits. I heart Alias. She hearted Alias, too.

Anyway, I started reading her blog and vice-versa.

Then, like a year later, my sister who had no idea who Leslie was began working with Leslie at ACU and they became friends. (However, Linds, she was MY friend first!) I met Leslie in person for the first time when I visited my sister in Abilene. Landry and Kaitlyn also got to meet and have a play date. They were fast friends and Landry even called Kaitlyn on her next birthday to wish her a happy birthday.

Don't you just love the coincidences of blog world?

Leslie's super thoughtful husband, James, planned a fun idea for her. He sneakily got a hold of all of the blog owners in Leslie's RSS feed and asked if they would participate in dedicating a post on Leslie's birthday to her so that when she logged into Google Reader for the day she would see a number of posts dedicated to her. What a fun idea--I was so happy to participate!

So Leslie, have a WONDERFUL 30th BIRTHDAY!!!

HAPPY 4th!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

I have so much to post, but no time. It will have to wait until Monday!

Have a great Independence Day!