Roadkill

I would like to take a moment to pay tribute to the rooster I killed this week. NOT! {well, about the paying tribute part}. I mean, really people, why are you letting your roosters and chickens run around at the corner of a very busy intersection {RIGHT off Hwy. 78}. That’s not very responsible if you like your chickens.

Anyway, I was coming back home from taking Stella to "school" {because I work from home about 3 days a week and it wouldn’t be “working” if she was there with me} and so I turned onto our road from Hwy 78 and THUNK, THUNK! I looked in my rear view mirror and saw a bunch of feathers flying around. So sad.

Blake drove by there about 10 minutes later and confirmed I was a rooster-killer.

For those of my friends from GCA, you might remember that as joke I won the “pet population control” award our Senior year after I ran over the Dalmatian on the way to school {in my sister’s new car}. That was a bad day.

So…all you animals roaming free out in the streets – watch out!

Weekend Recap

Blake and I went to the Mavs game Friday night. For those of you non-Texas people, that is Dallas’s basketball team who also won the NBA championship last year.

Blake called me at work Friday afternoon and said his mom had tickets and since she wasn’t feeling well, she let us have the tickets {thanks, Sheli!}. My mother in law works for a lawyer in Dallas and these were some of his season tickets…and they’re awesome! We were in fold out chairs on the floor about 3 rows back. Right up in all the action!

It was a great game – we won, which means that the Mavs progress into the play-offs!



{Dont' mind this strange face I'm making - not real sure what that was about!}

I was so excited to possibly see Khloe Kardashian, so I mentioned it at work. Another one of my co-workers asked if I knew that Lamar Odom {Khloe’s husband} had been cut from the Mavs. I definitely didn’t know that and it had happened over a couple weeks ago! Apparently, I hadn’t made it to that episode of Khloe and Lamar yet! My bad!

The rest of our weekend was pretty low-key. Blake worked out at the farm/future-home-site all day Saturday! We had showing number 3 for our house on Saturday, so Stella and I went out to the farm for a little while to visit Blake, his dad, his uncle, and his grandpa. And I snuck in a little lovin' on these guys!

Then, since we had a little more time to kill, we went shopping at a little boutique in downtown Royse City called LaRue…where I found these awesome shirts! Now, I’m giving away one of my guilty pleasures, but I watch a show on CMT called Texas Women. It’s kind of fun to watch a show where the people go to places that you’ve been and enjoy the same things you do {i.e. like team roping – not caddy girl fights}. One of the cast members, Ali Dee, has started a new clothing line {it also includes sunglasses, flip flops, and shirts} to raise money for her singing career, and these shirts are part of her clothing line. I happened to pick out the shirts before I knew they were hers because I really just liked the look of the shirts AND then I saw them that night on the show – but I’m happy to help support the cause! She's one of my favorites on the show, anyway!

Sunday was a great, definitely one of my favorite days of the week. We went to church that morning, then I went to a baby shower for a friend, and Sunday night ended back at church!

A Whole Lotta Nothin'

I know I’ve been such a sporadic blogger lately. I’m determined to get myself on some sort of routine. But, weeks like this, there’s really just not anything fun and exciting to share.

I’ve been doing lots of this…

Which, can I just tell you these are the best little inventions ever! They smell SO good and seem to work just as well as the liquid or powder detergent. I always get annoyed on the liquid detergent where it says “32 loads.” Now, I’ve never counted, but I know I’m not getting 32 loads out of that bottle. So, this way – I am legitimately going to get 62 loads out of this pack of pods!

I’ve also been doing lots of this…

First, Blake nearly cut his finger off last week. Something about a chain link fence and then there was a trip to the emergency room and 10 stitches. I will not post pics because it totally grosses me out. But, he’s been having to bandage it up every day and make sure it doesn’t get infected. And I'm very impressed at how good he's taking care of that finger!

Then, I lost my voice over the weekend and had a really bad sore throat. I’m not one that goes to the doctor often (you’d think otherwise if you saw the amount of money going to copays these days), but I’ve tried to be better about going to the doctor now that I have a kid who I can spread germs to. I certainly don’t want to get her sick. I made an appointment first thing Tuesday morning when I just wasn’t getting better on my own. Turns out I have (and please realize I feel ridiculously dramatic just typing this out) laryngitis, bronchitis, and sinusitis. So I got my sinuses, throat, and lungs all infected!

But I also had to take Stella to the doctor on Tuesday because I had noticed a rash breaking out on her stomach, neck, and arms and when I called the nurse line they said to bring her in. The doctor thinks she was having an allergic reaction to her antibiotics that she was taking for the ear infection from last week. So, we’ve taken her off the antibiotics and we’re just going to have to sit and wait for the tubes. The doctor said there was no improvement in the ear infection and that the medicine wasn’t helping. I gave her some Benadryl for the rash and that cleared it up right away. AND she’s getting in her two top teeth, so that poor baby is in all sorts of pain. Grrr!!

I’ve been trying to take it easy this week and just recuperate! And guess who went to bed at 8:30 last night? ME!! And it felt wonderful!

On a happy note – here’s this little angel walking around with her dinosaur and playing on boxes!

To my parents...

It’s hard not to get emotional when you think about the parents that God put specifically in your life to raise, love, and care for you. I am so immeasurably blessed by the parents that God picked out for me {and for the little sister he gave me}. God knew the two exact people that I needed.

I think sometimes we forget or take for granted the people in our lives that mean the most to us. I don’t want to wait to tell my parents how incredibly thankful I am for them. Sometimes it's hard for me to actually tell them, out loud, the amount of gratitude I have. And I want the world to know my respect for them.

When I think about their steadiness, faithfulness, and love it’s hard not to tear up. I understand so much more now that I am a parent, the unconditional love that you have for your child. I can only imagine the hurt and sorrow that our children can bring us when they do things that go against what we’ve taught them. Words cannot begin to describe the love, admiration, and thankfulness I have towards my parents.

I want to thank my mom and dad for raising me and teaching me first to know and love God. Thank you for making God a priority in our lives. Thank you for taking us to church weekly. Thank you for making us sit down at the dinner table together every night. Thank you for not giving me everything I wanted, but teaching me the satisfaction of hard work and working toward a goal. Thank you for showing me God’s love through you and your marriage. Thank you for caring enough about me to tell me “no.” Thank you for being there for me when I wasn’t acting in a way that was pleasing to you. Thank you for never turning your back on me through the hard times. Thank you for making tough choices that I know hurt you to make. Thank you now for your friendship. Thank you for your example in parenting. Thank you for being there as a rock and mentor to Blake and I for spiritual guidance. Thank you for the legacy you are making.

Mom and Dad - I love you.

Home Sweet Home

Well…we’ve put our house on the market as of this week. I have mixed emotions about this, but my excited/happy emotions are at about 90% and the remaining emotions are just because this truly is the perfect house.

I wanted to take these pictures to remember our house by. Not that I’ll completely forget, but my memory will fade and I want to look back on these. I wish I would have taken them before I had already taken down a lot of décor for “staging” purposes.

I’ll give more details later on what our full plans are, but for now, we’re looking to move to Blake’s family’s land, which is only a few miles from where we’re currently at. Although, in reality, we could build our dream home now, but we both want something to look forward to in our future and we feel like if we build that dream home now then what are we going to do at age 40? So, we’re going to downsize from a little over 2500 square feet to about 1800 square feet. We’re playing around with floor plans, but we’ll have to have them drawn up since we are going to be finishing out that 1800 square feet inside of a metal building, which from here on out will be known as the “barndominium.”

Ok – back to our current living situation. Blake and I bought this house about a week before our first anniversary {we’ll celebrate our fourth this May}. We had been living in one of his Papaw’s rent houses while we saved up for a down payment. This house was more than I could have hoped to buy. It's 6 acres, 2500 square feet, perfect floor plan, detached shop. Did I mention it was perfect? Except that it was a foreclosure and it was a wreck on the inside. So, prior to moving in, all the carpet had to be torn out and we had to treat the slab {someone had left their pets inside the house locked up with nowhere to use the bathroom}. We had to replace the stove, which had been taken, plus we had to paint three bedrooms {which were burgundy and midnight blue – floor AND ceiling}.



{kitchen - before}



{kitchen - after}

Over the three years that we have lived here we had the landscaping replaced, new carpet, new hardwood floors, all new appliances in the kitchen, new front door – and a lot of TLC! Plus, this will always be the house that we brought home our first born.

Just a few months ago, before we decided to move, I had the bright idea that I wanted to have this fun and funky-decorated dining room. So, poor Blake painted my dining purple {and the picture can’t do it justice because of the amount of trim in this dining room – it took over 3 rolls of tape} and my dining table black! Then, I bought zebra chairs from Kirklands and was having so much fun with my funky room – until we decided to move. I about panicked when I thought of some new potential buyer looking at this purple room. But, what do you do?

  

We’re just praying, if it’s God’s will, that the house will sell and we’ll get to move out to the land and try to live a little bit simpler. I have dreams of having a garden {with my non-green thumb}, fresh eggs {which means I gotta take care of chickens}, and my horsies in my backyard. We’ll have the roping arena within 50 yards of the barndominium and that means fun nights watching Blake rope and me getting to ride more often! Plus, it means Stella {and the future kid(s)} getting to grow up with room to roam and play outside. I will be living my dream! I am so very excited for the future.

ENT

Well first – not a one of these pictures has anything to do with the ENT, but since I took the pictures this week and we went to the ENT this week – it made sense in my head that they should go together.

We are officially scheduled for tubes on Friday, April 27^th and this is one happy momma! Including this week’s diagnosed ear infection, we’re on #8 {and I’m just praying we don’t have any more between now and then}.

There wasn’t much to the appointment, except waiting in the waiting room for an hour and fifteen minutes before we were called back. That means I sat with a 10-month old in my lap for over an hour trying to entertain her. At that point, anything in my purse was free game if it would keep her occupied. Apparently, my wallet did the trick and she was mesmerized with that thing. We ate puffs, played with a doll, waved and growled {don’t worry – it’s a very happy growl} to a couple other kids that came into the waiting. I am always ultra-paranoid about having my baby be “one of those kids” that screams and yells and pitches fits in public. But, all in all, I was very proud of how my little patient acted.

Once we saw the doctor, all he said was that based on the number of infections that she has had, he definitely felt like she would benefit from tubes. He explained a few things and then the nurse came in with the calendar. And that was that.

I’ve heard so many encouraging stories from other mom’s whose babies had tubes in their ears, so I’m not worried a bit about this. I’m just so excited for my little girl to be out of pain!

Bluebonnets

The Bluebonnet is the Texas state flower so this time of year they grow freely. For years now, I've seen people go and take pictures in the Bluebonnets with their families and I was so excited this year to join in the fun!

I’m very new at taking pictures with a DSLR and am hoping to go to a class at some point to learn more and better my skills {either that or pester my photographer friends into teaching me a few things}. I don’t have a desire to photograph on a professional level, but I would love to be able to capture memories and know a little about what I’m doing with my camera.

That being said, these are straight out of the camera {since I also have not yet mastered Photoshop} and my little turkey was way more interested in EATING the flowers than posing in them. 

My parents met me there because it really does take a village, people. Stella is on the go all the time! We definitely got a few good shots. And, being the biased mom that I am, I think they turned out pretty perfect!

Easter Weekend

We had a wonderful Easter weekend, despite Stella being sick. I worked from home on Friday since the daycare was closed for Good Friday. Luckily, Stella was a very sleepy girl on Friday and she took some lengthy naps throughout of the day. There were other times where she played in her play pin {or peeked over her play pin at me}.

Friday evening my parents came over. They had to have their dog, Sally, put to sleep after she had a stroke. We had Sally since I was in seventh grade and picked her out at the animal shelter. So it was very sad, but she had a good, long life {she actually had two years longer than we thought since I "lost" her while dog sitting for my parents when they were in Georgia over Christmas in 2009 - miraculously two weeks later she was found}! I was already cooking a pot roast in the crock pot on Friday and planning to make Pioneer Woman’s smashed potatoes, so it was no problem to have my parents join in for dinner that night, as well.

Then, Saturday, Stella and I picked up my mom and went to see the Easter Bunny! I’m not gonna lie, that guy is a little creepy looking. Stella did really well {i.e. she didn’t burst into tears when she saw him}. We never could get a real smile out of her, but we got the best shot we could! Plus, there was a small farmer’s market at Firewheel where I was able to pick up some onions, corn, and green beans!

Stella went and napped over at G-Mommy’s while I got a pedicure {I picked a purple polish to match the pastel purple and green outfits we were coordinating for Easter} and made a Target run {the Easter Bunny was not going to visit unless I made a quick shopping trip!}. As soon as I got back to my parents house I could tell my little sweetie wasn’t feeling real good. My mom thought she felt hot, plus she had a runny nose and her eye was swollen. Sure enough she had a 102.2 temperature when we got home, so I just tried to make her comfy and love on her {which isn’t hard for me, but she is the opposite of cuddly}. My sister in law and brother in law came over for dinner that night and we just hung out and had some good “catch up” time. I kept hoping and praying that Stella would feel better on Sunday morning since it was her first Easter.

As soon as Stella woke up on Sunday I knew she was still running a fever. It was a little over 100, but high enough where I didn’t want to expose any other kids to her at the nursery. So, we cancelled our breakfast plans with my parents, sister, and brother in law. Stella and I watched the church service on-line and Blake went to the early service. Stella also played for a little while with the presents she got for Easter. I won't go into detail on how disappointed I was to have to miss church, especially on Easter, and especially on Stella's first Easter.

I was 99% sure that she had another ear infection (this will be her 7th  - but the ENT couldn’t get us in for 6 weeks so we we were having to wait until April 26th). Her fever got better and she was acting  happier, so we decided to go over to Blake’s grandparents for lunch and an Easter egg hunt. Since they only live a few miles away I knew I could take Stella back home quickly if she started to get fussy again. We had a wonderful lunch and it was so nice spending time with family. Even though we live so close, I never feel like we get enough time together.

We spent the rest of the afternoon being lazy and watching the Master’s {yay, Bubba!}. The only time my baby girl has EVER laid her head on me was her last ear infection when she ran a fever. She is the most independent little thing and although she does want me constantly close to her, she’s not one for cuddles or even sitting still. So, when she laid her head on me yesterday, I KNEW she wasn’t feeling herself. Like I mentioned earlier, I am so very ready to get these tubes in her ears because I know she’s so uncomfortable with all this ear pain and I feel so helpless. The last ear infection we had to go to the doctor 3 days in a row for antibiotic shots since the oral antibiotics were no longer strong enough.

  

 

All in all, we had a fantastic Easter weekend remembering that the true reason for celebrating is that Jesus Christ died for us and He is risen!

Stella Update - we went to the doctor today and it is another ear infection. She's on some very nasty tasting antibiotics {according to the doctor AND pharmacist - I'm going to take their word for it} that she has to take 3 times a day. He said he did not want us to wait to get into the ENT so he referred us to an ENT that can get us in for an appointment this week. So, I'm praying that by the time this infection clears we can have the tubes put in right away.