Southern girl plowing her way through life making the rules up as she goes. Warning: likes to bake, curse, quote movies/literature, is tattooed, married to The Man and mother of two girls. We bring new meaning to the "griswald way of life". Come along for the ride!



Life is My Highway

Montana and North Dakota have become home.... dang it lol.

These Girls

Lord help me but these babies wear me out.... they are just perfect!

Superheroes

Yes, it's from last winter but I adore this shot...so us....

Duchess

This kid glows from the inside out... my almost 11 year old!

We are so smexy!

Favorite sport: embarrassing our kids in public

Princess

My mini-me is finding her own way in life

Showing posts with label On The Road. Show all posts
Showing posts with label On The Road. Show all posts

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Home....

We made it home.

I have lunches packed, outfits laid out and ready, bags prepped and the alarm set. Kids are in bed and our new school year starts in the morning. Fun times I tell you.

This weekend was amazing fun with my family.

Highlights for now, pics and stories to come later in the week:
  • Someone got stabbed in the head with a fork during a push rummy tournament
  • Geese attached the golf cart
  • Duchess got over her fear of cemetaries
  • I stole some decor from my uncle twice (I stole, he stole back, I stole again)
  • I got the recipe for field snap peas, yum
  • I took the girls for a photo shoot out and around, dragging my mother along for their yearly August pics
  • Got to see my momma again
  • Found a back way to cut time off my trip
  • Found a back road that is twisting, winding lanes in the sticks and SO FUN to drive at 80 mph
  • Drove 80 the entire time in Louisiana forgetting that speed limit is 55 there, opps
  • Got recognized only once in hometown which is a new record
  • Didn't win the Powerball
  • Realized just how lucky I am to have such a family

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Revisit: Lastest Roadtrip

























































































































Sunday, August 1, 2010

We B Home, Again

So last night we rolled back into home. I tell you, 12 plus hours on the road this time cause of my potty break happy kids. But we are finally home. I loved walking into this place, spacious and no clutter at all. Still doesn't feel quite like home home yet but that will come once I am here more and have really settled in. The past month has been in and out. That said, I came home to a yard that needs mowing again, dang East Texas rain.

Today is finishing up papers on that decisions class for the last time. So ready to be done with it and send in a scathing class review, I have truly hated this class.

That plus laundry equals busy me.

But I did take time this morning to help my eleven year old Princess shave her legs for the first time. Oh my gosh, I was totally against it but Dave was right. It was time. Dang it. Now I'm feeling way old.

Greeeeeeeat. As payment she is making me cookies today, lol. I always win in the end.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Road Trip 3003

So last night we bowled....today we're bouncing at a jumper place and hanging at the park. Tomorrow it's another day on the road, sigh....my goal is to make it home in time to soak in the tub and crash before dark.

So I'm working on travel options here, we could go one way and it's 13 plus hours (according to google) or another way is 11 hours but I know I can shave a little time around Dallas cause I figured out a short cut.

But the best part.....Princess' best friend from Oootah is in Texas visiting her daddy and I really thought I'd have stop in Dallas for a couple hours so these girls could meet up. Honestly, this is a great kid and one I was very pleased to let my kid hang out with. But turns out they actually live an hour/half from us so I'm just gonna wait till Tuesday and go pick her up for a playdate with us. Less travel drama for me and Princess will get her playtime. Gotta remember to get lots of pics!!!!

But otherwise, we're cleaning his rv and packing up so we can head out when the rooster crows in the morning. I'm ready for my tub and my bed. Cause it's freaking hot up here in the panhandle of Texas, I miss the coastal breezes. And Murphy misses his king sized bed.

On the road all day tomorrow, travel mercies for us please.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

I Miss My Bed

My back is killing me but I'm ignoring it cause I do so love to snuggle up next to my guy at night. Even though Murphy and me took all the blanket and left him freezing under the "H4G fixed ac". While I don't miss living in this rv, it's so nice to be with him. Now I can't wait for him to be home for awhile. He hasn't actually been in the house since I finished putting everything away. It's going to be a treat for him, for sure. Plus there is the matter of a "honey-do" list I have put together since he refuses to let me get some tools out of his toolbox to take home. Dang, thought I'd slip that by him but no such luck.

Wish me luck, we're bowling tonight and then old fashioned skating at a local link. I'm a little paranoid that I'm gonna break something. Pray for me please.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

BFE

So we took off for a few days to see my dearest hubby who is currently working in BFE northern Texas. When I say BFE I do mean it, I drove for like an hour past a town into what appears to be the middle of nowhere in a shanty town kind of place. If this were the wild west this place would have tumbleweeds blowing through it and a few dead looking guys asleep up against a saloon. Mr. GPS and I didn't agree on the drive so I managed to cut 3 hours off the trip going my way via an atlas. Really, the use of an atlas is a lost art. I love an atlas. And when I forget any of the 3 I own????? I love my mom sitting in front of hers, guiding me through, as she totally speaks my travel language... which includes sentences like: look past "town" and find this tiny little farm road, yeah no not that one, another one....starts with a 5 I think...yeah that one, it'll route me around traffic.

So we make it here and we got to see him for 30 minutes last night before I fell into a coma. Poor guy is a little flustered having us and Murphy with him though because between digging through all this crap we travel with trying to get ready for work and taking Murphy outside before he leaves, he managed to leave his sandwich in the fridge, he'll be starving tonight.

So we're resting today and then tomorrow we're driving a ways into a real town to watch a movie and do some tourist stuff. Fun!

However, it's worth it cause we get to hang with our guy. Who hopefully in a few weeks will have a couple weeks off before traveling to the next jobsite. Luckily these are quick turn around jobs so he'll have some time down. What a blessing.

I got to sleep a little and then it happened... we woke up in this little town with an average temperature of 100 and Satan and the rv ac seized up. I suffered for about an hour before I used a fork to disassemble the ac unit and got a hairdryer out. I can't deal with sweating to death inside, it's different out of doors.

So I'm gonna go work on my explanation to Dave about why there are metal boxes and cords hanging from hole in the ceiling. Opps....

Saturday, July 17, 2010

It Really Gets Interesting Around Here....

So we found our great house in Texas. We picked out the perfect school for the kiddos. And I got all our stuff moved here to the little South East Texas town we love and it happened.

The company Dave went to work for showed their true colors.

And frankly that is a problem that had to be dealth with immediately; see Dave has a moral code that he won't budge on and when push came to shove....he resigned.

And I've never been prouder. And God truly listens to the prayers of his children because the morning before he resigned, the phone rang.

He was offered a job with his old company in the Cadellac division. Before he worked for the Ford division apparently, but this company was something he was to proud of. He enjoyed the heck out of the work and frankly he had respect for the people who run it.

So he's on the road working again, except this time it's shorter more intense projects and he just a few hours away instead of states.

I'm so excited because he's happy and he's in a good place.

And even though it is amazing to me that we have done a 180 turn here, it feels right.

So here we are, in a similiar but very different situation. Except now, we will go for long weekend visits and he'll be home for weeks or a month at a time. This works well for me considering that while he's working, he's really working....I absolutely love how my guy goes out there and gets the bacon...he busts his butt for us constantly with his eye on the prize.

Frankly, it feels good. So I'm working on setting this house up and getting things moving along here. Getting the kids' settled here and ready for school. And as usual, I'm plugging away at my degree, which will hopefully finally be finished in Jan/Feb timeframe.

Which considering I've applied to school for my masters it's a good thing.

I think I'm addicted.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Road Trip 3002

So I flew last week into SLC to go about the process of moving my household goodies. Dave was absolutely tied up with his new company so it was up to me. Since the babies were already scheduled for church camp with their grandparents it was time for me to move and move quick.

So I flew into SLC (I think I said that already didn't I?) But stupid me booked myself on the 6ish am flight and driving from the lake is a several hour trip so I didn't get myself any sleep at all. But the real drama came when my frugal nature had an argument with my packing choices.

You see, you have to pay for luggage checked now. Are you kidding me? Like these people aren't ripping the crap out of us already....I digress, sorry. So I realized that I couldn't check both my gun and my clothing considering my carryon was my laptop bag containing all the homework I needed to accomplish during the move.

So what would any good southern girl do?

I went with the gun.

And flew to SLC with my checked gun and no clothes.

Because honestly, I wouldn't be caught dead without my gun during a cross country move. There is no way on earth I was willing to do that.

So I was going naked.

I had the clothes on my back and that's it.

(Thank you mother for loaning me clothes and taking me for shorts/shirts!)

So I was sleeping walking at the point Dave dropped me off at the airport at 4 am. And since noone was working yet, I carried my gun safe upstairs to ask someone in security how to check it since the regulations constantly change.

The sleepy TSA guy smiled so sweet at the security checkpoint and asked what I was carrying, when I said handgun, he freaked. OMGawd did he freak. He yelled at me that I wasn't allowed to bring a gun upstairs and all the TSA people at the checkpoint got a nice little wakeup as I screamed back at him that I didn't know and how the hell was I to ask when nobody was downstairs but the guy cleaning the floors who didn't speak English.....it was entertaining to say the least.

They calmed down when I flipped it upside down and shook it to show them it was all safely locked up and promised them it was unloaded then directed me to where I needed to go and get it checked.

So finally I got my gun checked and loaded onto the plane. I refused to give up my aisle seat to a grumpy arse lady and then got a look that promptly told me she hoped I fried in hell....I smiled and gave her a thumbs up cause I believe in sharing the love.

Laying over in Denver was fun, especially when I realized that they had a smoking lounge. Hello, then after a couple smokes and a coke I realize I have 10 minutes to make it 10 gates or the plane would leave without me.

Turns out, I should really wear my glasses in situations like this. Turns out I got in at gate 31 and flew out of 91.....why did I read that as gate 41? Interesting. So yeah, I ran and I ran like a bad guy in the movies, taking out little old ladies with my laptop bag, hopped over several carry ons left in the aisle while their owners ordered lattes (really could have used a latte at this point) and finally because I can not lie, I rounded a corner and ran smack into a pilot who was apparently running late too cause we went down like two freight trains meeting in a tunnel. OMGawd....this wouldn't be quite so bad except he was like old and little and I totally was horrible and jumped off taking off leaving him in the middle of the corridor, cause I suck. Sorry little pilot man, I was late...........really really late and I suck.

I made it to the plane and boarded last. Figures. Then realized my seat was the last row, aisle seat on a small plane.

Like small as in "pack of gum with wings".

Seat didn't recline and my seat mate was apparently a BYU football player. Huge young guy.

So I get settled and then promptly turn to mr. football man and told him in my best stern mother voice that he was in my seat and frankly I paid for my WHOLE seat so he needed to hug the window and put the armrest down.

He balked. So I gave him the look and then before I could speak a very sweet adorable flight attendent totally put him in his place, quoting the FAA regulations for the armrest. So I got my seat and football man went to sleep, only drooling a little. I really envy people who can totally put themselves to sleep asap like that.

Anywho, so we get settled and then the little adorable flight attentant guy totally put the seat down and snuggled up to me. Cause you see, the flight attentent seat was a fold down from the back of the bathroom door making the last row actually 5 seats wide. And after I caught him reading the new Janet Evanovich over my shoulder, he introduced himself and announced that he was my new gay. I was thrilled, we shared my book, ate M&M's, talked shoes and promptly had us a great time the whole flight. It was a fab time and got my mind off the wildly small plane.

I landed in SLC and there was my amazingly great bestest friend in the world to welcome me back to hell. Looking like a million bucks since we both left our old company, I was so excited to have some girl time.

We had a great lunch, we totally acted up and talked about everything under the sun. We looked at shoes. We went to the gun range and blew the other girls away cause we some serious pistol packing mommas. Then we went shopping somewhere that I swore I won't put on my blog....but it was her idea and I didn't buy a thing, thank you very much. Almost, but didn't. And when she dropped me off to my momma and daddy, I was so glad to catch up.

Then at 7 pm I shut down and literally fell asleep in a blink which is so not me. I slept for 12 straight hours too, which is also not me.

The next day was all packing.

My daddy picked up our truck. My momma and I loaded all my house from that storage unit into that Penske truck in 4 hours. The three pieces we couldn't move wound up being the easiest when their friend showed up with a truck that had a hydrolic lift. OMGawd, I gotta buy one of them things. Awesome!

So when it was all said and done, Daddy and I pulled out of SLC less than 48 hours after I arrived driving the Penske truck to Texas.

Step 1 was complete.

And you might have wondered why I didn't make time to blog....cause we all know I blog just about everything. lol

Step 2 tomorrow, my fingers are tired.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Whew, Finally Get A Breath

I've been running nintey to nothing for weeks now. Finally this afternoon, I've been able to sit back and take a deep breath. Dear Lord but has my summer been insane. As Duchess says, "I'm so glad your home all the time to take care of me..." Good night, how do mom's stay at home and get all this done. I've juggled parenting, work, and marriage for years now. This is the first summer I've had off with my kids and I have never been busy!

Princess is now knee deep in youth at our new church. She is going to weekly summer youth camp and today right after church left for a 5 day spirit filled youth camp past Houston. Today for the first time in our Sunday morning service, I saw my kid (sitting with the youth group) raise her hands to the Lord during a praise and worship song. I teared up and was weeping like an old lady watching my baby interacting with the Lord. What an amazing moment for a mommy!

So youth camp each day includes devotional, music lessons (this week was trumpets), community and/or church service and then they spend time helping the youngsters with their devotionals. The confidence and maturity is already blooming in my pre-teen. I love seeing her so happy. I don't think I realized how much of a social butterfly Princess is.

Duchess spends her day helping me with errands and has special playtime when Mommy is at the gym.

Both kids were the driving force in our finding a house here locally. Since we're not traveling with Dave's new job, the kids and I were having a hard time justifying the rv. And people, we needed more than one bathroom.

We are so blessed. We got an amazing place down here. It's simple, out in the country on the edge of a fantastic little town. We were so worried about how we would manage this new move. We were anticipating being on the road for a year and a half. Six months into this, the Lord had other plans. And here we are.

The first person to call on a house listed with no pics, the first to see this little gem and even though he is working 70 hour weeks my sweet, dear Dave made the time to go see it the same night. We called and told them it was ours. We're leasing it, considering we have our house in Utah under lease to a renter. We signed the lease and paid our monies yesterday. It's fantastic and it's ours.

Best of all, it's in a great school district so now we don't have to put our kids into private school. When we began broaching the idea of settling down, Dave was insistent on the kids going into a private Christian school. I would work to pay the tuition and we'd settle down. The areas we looked over never felt right. Until this house in the country and this small flourishing school district. Now, I can work parttime eventually to stay busy and the kids can get back involved in a school, making friends. My sweet babies are chomping at the bit. We didn't realize just how much they missed it. You know it, it being normal life....

But while we're settling in, we're doing it our way. I have found that carving our own path is much better for us in the long run.

So I have to get plans made to return to Utah for our household goods, get my kids to their final summer camp in July and get our happy butts settled into a real live house....a house with 3 bathrooms........love me some bathrooms....

And now I have a ton of school to catch up on...

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Warning: Me in a Canoe

There are so many options for blog post titles on this one, I've considered the following:

I tipped it alot but stayed dry.

He did all the work.

They all had chicken and beer, we had salad.

I peed on my shoe.

He took a picture.

This is not how I pictured this.

And finally: holy crap this is harder than it looked.

So we got up early on our first full day without my sweet babies, who are as I type living it up in Colorado with my folks. Dave the Gentile rolled me out of bed and we headed to the gym bright and early.

For once, we had a good time at the gym. I almost fell off the exercise ball but managed to catch myself and I didn't toot at all so I consider the gym a success. We also managed to work out with each other and left the gym talking and happy, a first for us as usually when we work out together I'm pissed and he's frustrated. Thank you Robert the trainer.

He treated me after the gym to a breakfast taco in the very worst area near the refinery but oh my goodness what a yummy yummy treat. Hmmmmmmmm good. For sure!

Then it was pack and float time. We hit the local super grocery and loaded up on lunch and fruit and drinks. I packed my southern belle floppy hat (totally would fit right in at the Kentucky Derby) and we stopped by an army surplus store for him a booney hat. Side note: after giving him the pouty look and a big ole long suffering sigh, I got the cutest camo skirt on earth....trust me, it's jam up.

So then it was off to the river. This setup was the best. We paid when we made our reservation then we parked at the pickup point where a big ole van loaded us and our cooler up driving us down to the insertion point. We picked our canoe, blue to match my toe nail polish. Then we attempted to insert. Attempted, cause it took me awhile to get my balance and get my butt up on the front seat. And would you believe I had to face the front of the boat and hold an oar. I was sure it was wrong cause I'm suppose to sit facing my rower and admire his muscles in the sun as he rows us along with my in my big ole sunhat and trailing a hand in the water....turns out paddle is a verb, fancy that.

So we started upstream, then turned around and headed down stream. Now, I've canoed once before, in San Diego bay, and it was ALOT different. This river was so low I could touch my oar to the bottom at any given time. We had to work around logs, fallen trees, drunken groups of beer drinkers and the occasional church group, but the funniest one was the family with the parents in the kayak and their boys in a canoe. The daddy spent more time getting out of his kayak and pulling his boys out of the brush then moving down the river. Boy howdy we barely made it past them without getting t-boned.

Then we moved along and found us a sandbarge where we picniced in our boat, eating our yummy salads and drinking our sodas. We must have been quite a sight sitting there eating salads in our big ole hats while the other peeps were drinking beer and eating buckets of fried chicken. We started joking about being the old yuppies on the river, boy have the times changed. lol

So here we were chilling in our boat, having lunch, laughing and feeding the fish all kinds of egg, salad, and veggies then I realized I had to pee. Apparently my husband didn't realize that I was no stranger to pee-ing in the woods. So I went up on the bank by the brush and hunkered down behind a log and set about my business. I'd asked Dave to stand with his back to me and watch the river, making sure noone came around the bend. Except he turns around and giving me an evil grin, raises the camera and starts snapping pictures. I feel backwards and peed on my shoes and part of my shorts. Damn it.

Nothing puts you in a good mood like pee-ing on your shoes. But we prevailed and had a great time. Best of all, when we got to the end pick up place, they helped us out of our canoe and we jumped straight into the truck and home for a nap.

Proof that we're not too old to have us a good time without our babies.

I'm kinda scared of what tomorrow brings.

2 days on the road

We made excellent time driving the kiddos up to drop off with my folks. A full day there to the meeting city, and a full day back home to Dave. A few thoughts on the trip:

- Love is not my favorite truck stop any longer, nasty! Travel America centers are NICE!

- Hearing my kids warn each other to "hover" when using the potty in a not so great bathroom, priceless!

- There is only so many times you can distract Duchess before she'll continue to talk for a full hour

- My kids love 50's music

- Duchess bought ran me off the road cause I was hysterically laughing at her story of a new movie where a dog threatens to eat someone and poop them out on the floor, you had to be there I guess...sounded funnier than writing it

- Princess, bless her heart, has a tiny bladder

- We had some great chats on the road, making me totally appreciate my time with my kids

- Country Inn & Suites is the NICEST hotel. It was clean, friendly staffed, beautiful and the sheets were fantastically soft, nice tub too, good for soaking

- Loved seeing my mom and dad. I miss them so much.

- Got up and left at 5 am heading home to Dave while everyone else slept till 9

- Made excellent time

- Preplanned well. Had six cd's of "themes" that lasted the entire trip...did you know you could put 20 songs on a cd? Anyway: glee, rock, glee 2, rock 2, girls rock, and combo. Fun times.

- I did the entire trip home with 4 stops

- Weirdest stop was a truck stop with an out of order women's room so the deskclerk cleared the men's room so 4 women could use it, NASTY....If I'd ever wondered about the men's room, it lived up to NO expectations. Although Dave did explain the scented cakes in the urinals to me.

- Managed to drive without any speeding tickets

- Got home to Murphy about passing out in excitement...seems he moped the entire time I was gone. He is a momma's boy.

- Dave took me straight out for dinner at Joe's and didn't tease me once for spraying him with crab juice as I attempted to eat an entire pot of snow crab legs. YUM! Althought I got the fire roasted version which was so spicy and so messy, I was covered head to toe in seasonings and crab juice. They had to hold the bathroom door open for me so I could wash up afterwards but girl was starving!

All in all, the kids had a blast and so did I. Now I'm enjoying my week with my hubby.

After my nap, I'll relate my adventures from today.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Road Trip 3001

Yet another road trip is about to commence. Woohoo, I do so love me some road trips. Big arse truck stops, singing and tooling along following the white lines spells freedom for me. First summer in evah that I'm not working, instead hanging with my kids and keeping my family busy and happy. I'm loving our life.

So I'm packing my babies for a full week with their mimi and pepaw. But first I'm driving them a long way to meet up at a hotel with my folks for the evening. Then I'll bust out of there on a mission....get back to my man.

I'm burning tons of cds, washing laundry, packing snack and bags for the babies. Charging ipods, gameboys and phones.

Then after dinner it's gym time and off to bedibye. As at 4 am I'm gonna be up and on the road. Watch out Texas, I'm driving through....

And shocker of all, I'm leaving my laptop home as it's a turn around trip for me so I'll get back to you on Saturday.

Be well my friends....

Sunday, May 30, 2010

R We Normal?

So there are often times I revel in my family. We're hysterical, we're faith led, and we're oh so real. However, I often wonder if other families are as "real" as we are....or if perhaps we have gone off the deep end.

Some thoughts on our "normal"

- while preparing for church, Dave tells me a blonde joke about a poot (we don't say the f word) and a dog, Scooter....we all laugh hysterically....cause gas is funny in our house

- we are currently locked in a heated family debate over the correct pronounciation of the words "lips" in polish....so we are watching Veggie Tales right now so Dave and I will quit arguing over it

- speaking of Veggie Tales, we have a very disturbing habit....It's hard to confess so please don't judge us, I'm deathly serious....if it gets too quiet (which rarely happens but occassionally) one of us will break out the first part of Barbara Manatee with the rest breaking in to sing the repeat lines. Dave always finishes it with the deep voice line. People usually stare if we're in a restaurant

- my oldest burps like a man and will scare the crap out of you when she releases a monster while my youngest will call you out (and sometimes complete strangers) if she smells something and thinks you pooted. She thinks everyone should announce it with a loud "Excuse me" like she does, regardless of where you are

- my kids are deathly afraid of hot boxing: thanks Dave

- my oldest announced today that she wanted to shave her legs, my youngest covers her face and moans "oh you tween" and my husband tried to offer her money to delay the process. We managed to change the subject by talking about his toe hair.

- in Walmart after church we were trying to get me a knee brace for my workouts and I had one leg propped up on the lower shelf, one hand braced on Dave's back and my jeans pulled up as far as I could which means right above my knee. On an aisle that also sells everything old people need to live, Dave gets frustrated trying to adjust one of the options on me and announces loudly to just "pull your pants down" to which my kid says "mom are you wearing underware today"...Dave got all red and backpedalled that he meant to just lower my pants leg and he'd put it on over my jeans. The old people didn't look convinced but one man moved closer as if interested...hmmmm

Just some things that have happened today, before 2:52 pm on a Sunday afternoon....so r we normal or is everyone else really boring?

Monday, May 24, 2010

Princess for the Day

So Dave didn't work on Saturday like usual. Instead he woke up me and told me to get my butt in gear. I was to get dressed and in a quick.


So I threw on clothes while my husband and kids were gleefully rubbing their hands together.


First we dropped off my car, for a complete detail. Wow, I've had that car for 4 years and I keep it somewhat clean but it's never had a detail. Exciting. That and my new tinted windows, I'm one kept woman.


Second, I was told to find a hairdresser. So through some referrals from some other salons I found Lance. My new best friend who thought it was so cute that I was being "forced" into getting my hair that day instead of waiting when I had some free time that he gave me an appointment of a lady who never shows up. So I was to be there at 1245. Check.


Third, I was dropped off at a nail place for a spa pedicure. I was told to match my toes to my shirt, so baby blue toes it was. I even got the parafin wax dip. Interesting note to insert here but I'll come back to it.


Fourthly, they picked me up and then we swung by a local gym where I got a 99 day membership to see if it was something I really wanted to do. Guess he took it to heart when I said it'd be nice to have some mommy time each night, why not work in some iron too.


Fifthly, we then had to RUSH to get me to Lance. But we got there on time and they pushed me out of the car. Where for the next three hours, I underwent a transformation. You see, I was feeling brave and I was feeling tired of having to deal with hair issues every single day. So I did it. I went all out. But I really did it. I cut it all off and went super blonde. My husband and kids pulled up and all you could see in his tinted windows under the sun was his very white smile, I think he likey. Lance was pacing anxiously at the window looking to see if it was thumbs up....so cute. It's way different than I've ever done and frankly I so LOVE IT.
So afterwards, my people then loaded me up with ooahs and ahhhs and Dave admitted that he wished I'd done it years ago, cause he's always my long hair advocate. And sixthly, they took me to a Chinese food place where there was a GF menu so I could actually have Chinese for the first time in forever. Thank you google.
Lastly, yes it was only 5 pm at this point....they took me bowling where I kicked their butts with a 131 score. Not bad for someone who hasn't bowled in forever.
I came home and promptly collasped under the strain of this day.
Just to get up and start it all over again yesterday when I got churched, lunched, and dinnered while having a lot of fun family time. I don't know what is so special about my 33rd birthday but they truly made my weekend shine. It will not be easy to top this one and frankly I kinda hope they don't try.
So without futher ado, the new me......



Sorry about the pic but hey you work with what you can.....lol

Later: info about the conversation I had with the lady in the pedicure chair next to me....

Thursday, May 20, 2010

I Be Better

You wanta know why?

Cause after carrying around my grumpy arse mood I sent an email to a friend who I like to think of as "my jimmy cricket on my shoulder, laughs with me at jokes when noone else finds them funny and then snorts as I laugh and cry at the same time, has a pysch degree so knows what she is talking about, loves Jesus with a passion that helps her to mentor me well" friend.

And with a few soft spoken words reminded me to put my faith in God and rebuke the devil trying to load me with doubts.

I sat alone for a minute and said a quick prayer and in about an hour, poof the mood was gone without me noticing it and my day went on as usual.

Then my momma called during her hectic inventory day and her happy voice lifted my spirits high. Then my girl Case and I chatted and I always feel like I siphon off some of her happy attitude whenever we talk, she is my always cheerful friend.

Then my kids made me cards and were angels.

And then my husband went to the store after dark and got me a Coke Zero just because.

I'm blessed. And like everyone else, even Susie Sunshine me hits a wall sometimes. I like to think it's because it gives me a chance to appreciate the support system I have around me.

Going to snuggle to my husband, which adds another layer of joy to my life. Six months ago, I couldn't do that every night.

14 days till mommy week.....not that I"m counting or anything.....

Keep Your Distance

Because life is life and I'm somewhat normal.... I'm having one of those days so keep your distance. I spit far, like a camel.

I woke up full of doubts: should we continue homeschooling, should we continue in an RV, should we upgrade an RV, should we...should we....should we...and it continues....

So I tried to shake my funk and kept biting my tongue and not gripe at the kids. I keep unusually silent.

And I did all the laundry, and cleaned the rv, and let the kids play, and kept silent.

Then we went to the nursing home to paint nails and then we hit the grocery store for paper towels, ice, and dishwashing liquid.

I yakked with my dad for an hour during some of this errand running which always cheers me up.

And I stopped at Sonic for my now weekly, once daily, coke. Before I would have a rt44 coke anytime I could...but i decided to cut calories and eat my calories rather than drink them. SO I switched to coke zero, but I give myself the weekly coke, a large now rather than a rt44. Big time proud of myself.

Got home and while still chatting with Dad, Princess is playing around at the sink and knocks my full, undrank weekly coke onto the floor. I quickly got off the phone and lost my shit.

And before I got ugly, I went outside to kick the tires on my rv. I felt slightly better. And now, she is cleaning the rv again and we'll have extra chores after school today.

harse? maybe, but seriously I'm tired of them kids playing around and I only ask for a few things....so yeah, I'm still pissed.

Keep your distance

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Recapping our lastest adventure

So this past weekend we escaped for a glorious 4 day weekend at the lake. I absolutely heart the lake. The in-laws have moved up their full time and built a house we now have a ton of room where we can spread out and get comfy. Dave's mom keeps the upstairs ready for us, big ole room for us and the kids have room to hang out and watch tv. It's great.

I cook as much as possible as I miss having kitchenspace to do some big ole cooking...which meant amoung other things a big ole GF carrot cake that didn't last 24 hours. And thankfully when I start cooking, Grandpa (Dave's mom's dad) comes to hang. Love me some Grandpa, he cracks me up, always wanting to know how I made this or that and is always the first to clean his plate. Even better, he gets a huge kick out of the kids. This time he brought his dog, Duke, who gives Murphy fits.



Duke was rescued so is a bit skittish around anyone or any other dog but he is attached to Grandpa and is quite taken with Duchess. But you wanta see this skittish little man get very attentive, pull out a camera. The dog totally "sits pretty" everytime you point the camera at him. Adore this little guy. Watching him and Murphy play chase nonstop for an hour really peaks up my day.

While Dave and I enjoyed the rare chance to watch tv without kids underfoot, the kids invaded Grandma's sunroom which is where she hides with her crafts. While the kids make jewelry with her, I'm still angling to learn to stain glass.


While it was sprinkling quite a bit, it was insanely high at Grand water wise. The dam created Grand Lake in the 40's and with all the rain this year, Grand Lake was too high, so when we got there this weekend the spillways were opened a TINY little bit. And wow, the amount of water that comes out in....

Below the same spillway is usually where we went hiking but there was no hiking while the spill was one. The water so so fast and so high. The fishing was insane. They killed it, I passed in favor of a nap. Go me.

Below the dam is a state park where Dave took me fishing on one of our first dates. This is the exact area we hung out. The water was so high, you can't even see the boat ramps. Crazy.


Driving along the dam, this is the lake side.

A grubby me and Duchess under the spillway, Princess was at choir practice gearing up singing in front of her grandparents' church.

This is the river side of the dam, way down there, way way down there. Still can't believe how high the river was. No hiking for us like we wanted, but we went through some of the higher trails.
Next up, to finish our trip Princess sang for the first time in front of anyone outside the family. Can't tease her anymore, cause she carried that tune in her bucket beautifully. I totally teared up.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

God Answers

it absolutely blows my mind but God answers prayers. We thought Dave's current job would be ending as of Feb and here it is May and it's finally coming to an end. We haven't complained, we like Beaumont and we love us some Texas. It's not Oklahoma but it's darn close. And with this job coming to an end, so is the division Dave works for. The company is shutting that division down completely. The majority of the crew has already moved on to other companies and jobs. The oil business is still booming in this recession but there is alot of competition for work though.... one guy we know is a great guy, good worker with skills. He is a local though and to get right back to work took a job in Houston for less pay meaning he's got twice the commute and less take home.

But in the face of this, we had faith that the Lord would see us through to his path, not the one we wanted. So through it all, we kept our eye open for jobs and Dave kept up with things through the grapevine of people he works with. We didn't panic and for once, I had no plan.

Now, I think it's important to confess that I'm an A #1 planner. I've always had a plan, actually I've always had two backup plans. Always. As soon as something is on the horizon, I start planning to adjust our plan just in case. It's a compulsion that God has removed from my life. So again for the record, we had no back up plan. We weren't stressing, we were living our life day by day with faith that the Lord would provide. Ignorance? I prefer to call it faith.

Glory be to God, he is amazing! In the middle of last week, in the middle of an ordinary work day my husband got a call. One of his bosses recommended him for a safety job with a local company working on the same refinery. The very next day, he interviewed for that position. He was told to take a long weekend and we'd know something Monday. His crew was off waiting on mobilization so we spent four glorious days in Oklahoma. We occassionally talked about it and about the outcome but we tried our best to not stress and not focus on it.

Yesterday, Dave was offered his first safety manager job. His degree in Safety is 3 classes from complete and the first safety job is always the hardest to get breaking into the field. Thanks to alot of amazing people, he got it. He'll wrap up this current job and move straight into the new one.

Which means it's a good thing we like Beaumont, cause we'll be here for awhile longer. Now, we're not changing too much though. Considering the nature of the business, we'll be continuing with our mobile lifestyle, rv and homeschool. But we can put down a few roots, join our local church and get the kids involved in a few things. It does my heart good. Besides I'm not ready to add yardwork or house decorating to my resume....I'm a rv-ing homeschooling mom yo!

Saturday, May 15, 2010

This is Why We Watch PG TV

So I'm at the lake chilling with the inlaws and hanging out. Last night, we all sat in the tv room watching tv while the kids were in Grandma's sunroom making jewelry. My father in law is a huge fan of South Park, apparently my husband is too. I'm not old enough for this show, I've never watched this show. Ever. In this lifetime. At all.

I'll never watch it again because all day long my husband has been pinching me on the neck going "sht", i.e. the method of the Dog Whisperer teaching Cartman to behave. So the entire day he's been attempting to "retrain" me. I've never smacked him so many times in one day, ever. He's getting quite the kick out this. I'm gonna wait till he's asleep and get my revenge.

The lesson learned today? Tv is bad, and I obviously can not be "retrained".

Back later, taking my girls under the dam to go 4x4-ing. Later gators.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Yes Please

So the weekend is coming, and I'm waiting on the call to see if we're heading up to the lake for the rest of the weekend or if its business as usual. Frankly, I'm in need of some serious lake time. I'm perfecting my tan and I could use some time hiking with my ipod.

Grand Lake is our place. It's where we escaped Tulsa and work and drama when we were dating to swim in the lake, hike beneath the dam and just well.....you get the idea. I love me some Grand Lake.

Now, the kids would have to take school books as we have to keep at the grindstone, I think we could work in some mommy time. I need my highlights touched up and I'm seriously thinking of a summer cut but we'll see. Dave says GOD NO, but it's my hair so I'll get back to you.

Otherwise, I'm hoping that call comes through, cause then it's ROADTRIP and I just downloaded a ton of songs onto my ipod for the trip. Let's go old school this week, I'm thinking 80's.....