The Rock

The first year we were married we were broke. I mean BROKE...we thought we had money because we were making more than we ever had, but I was in school and working for a daycare, and Chris was working for a surveying company that was just getting started. We did manage to buy a new car, but it was the only car we had for the next ten years of our married life.

We lived in Lake Highlands in an apartment that we loved. We actually had our own washer and dryer and an island in the kitchen. Oh how we loved that apartment. Right behind our apartment we had a beautiful walking area with a creek. We would walk back there quite often.

My birthday was coming up and we did not have a lot of money. Chris was so worried because he wanted to get me something really nice. He worried and worried. He even said to me how sorry he was that he was not going to be able to spend much money on me, if any. I was a little sad, but I told him with my best face on that it was okay as long as we were together that was the only present that I needed.

So my birthday arrived. He was a little embarrassed , but that morning he handed me a fairly large rock and a piece of yellow lined paper.

The paper had a poem on it about the rock and the rock represented our love. I was so touched. It was possibly the best present I had ever received. I am ashamed to say that I have looked and looked and looked for that yellow piece of paper. I still have the rock to remind me, but the paper has disappeared in the last fifteen years. I do remember that he compared the rock to our love and how it is constant.

Our love has been constant over the last fifteen years, but seldom easy. We have had lots of storms that we have weathered together, and some that we have weathered independently because we were too stubborn to lean on each other, but each day we have chosen to love each other. I happily make the choice to love him everyday, and I know that he does the same thing.

Flashback Friday

So for this Flashback I am not posting a picture. This is the first of many posts until my anniversary on the 30th. There will be pictures....but not today...

This is just a little story of a guy and a girl...

Fifteen years ago I started working at a little company called Nichols and Pelley doing data entry. My friend Colleen got me the job because she was quitting. The first day or so she was training me, and then I met this guy who worked in the afternoons doing the same thing I did. He started training me on different aspects of the "computer" entry system. I remember that I looked at that orange and green monitor all day. LOL

This guy's name was Chris and he was quiet, funny, tall, red-headed, and very good looking. We talked alot and had lunch in the office once. Then about the fourth day I was working there he came in and made a comment about something he saw in some one's car that he thought was interesting. I told him it was my car. He asked me why all my stuff was in the car and I told him I was waiting for my apartment to be ready and had no where to keep my stuff, because I had just broken up with my boyfriend at the time.

He sympathized and said that we should get some dinner sometime and talk. I totally jumped on it, you see he was cute and I didn't think he would ask again, and said I am free tonight. He said okay and gave me directions to his house.

I drove from Denton to Garland in rush hour traffic on LBJ to go to dinner with him. When I walked up to the door I heard someone playing the piano. It sounded wonderful, but I didn't recognize the song. I knocked on the door and he answered. We talked for a couple of minutes and then we got into his Nissan Maxima and he drove to Olive Garden.

I had not been on a first date in such a long time. I did not even know if this was a date for sure, but I was nervous. I wasn't sure what to order and I don't even remember what I ate.

We had a time though, I do remember that, and it seemed like I had known him forever. We drove to a park by his house to sit and talk. He kissed me before the night was over. Yes I did kiss him on the first date!

We did not want the night to end, but it had to. We drove back to his house and I got my car. From that night on, we were inseparable. Boy, fifteen years has gone by fast!

Emily playing outside

It has been downright hot around here the last few days. Feels like we skipped right over spring and moved right into summer. The evenings are still nice though and Emily has been wanting to spend those evenings outside. Last night we went for a walk and then she wanted to ride her bike. After riding her bike she wanted to draw with some chalk. Here are the pictures...btw...I LOVE my phone...all pictures taken with my iPhone...

Writing.....

REALLY????? Can I be anymore distracted these days????

I spent lots of time at the beginning of the year "designing" a writing schedule and I did follow it fairly religiously for a little while, but alas, as everything goes I have filed it away under the letter "L" for LATER.

I keep telling myself that tonight is the night. NO really tonight is the night, I am going to write and write and write and write. I am going to finish The Heist. I am going started publishing that new story I have in the works. On the way home I plan my whole night, cook dinner, play with kids, kiss hubby, WRITE.

Meanwhile, 1 hour later....

Pick up kids, and everyone is cranky. Cook dinner, and kids take about three hours to eat. Do the dishes and play with kids, and meanwhile do three or four loads of laundry that HAVE to be done for the next day cause everyone needs something different. Bathe children and read books. Endless goodnight kisses and hugs. Kiss hubby as he sits down to watch TV while I "write". Check email, look at my Facebook.....look up and it is 11:00pm. Oh well, no writing tonight, but tomorrow for sure.

UGH!!!!!

anyone have ANY suggestions for me? (besides stop getting on Facebook, because I am here to tell ya, that ain't gonna happen! ;)

New Featured Blog

Okay, so I fell down on this one over the past few weeks. I hope you had fun checking out Skip to My Lou! She is awesome, but today I found this blog that has backgrounds, lots of blinkies, and tags for free. The blog also discusses digital scrapbooking, which I am really trying to get into these days. Have fun checking them out. Leave me a comment if you like the new background. It does take a little getting used to the white, but I think I like it! :)

Helping the Easter Bunny

So, the Easter Bunny called and he said that he needed some helping making our baskets, so my mom and I were happy to help! He dropped off the candy and we put it in our baskets. But, as usual there was WAY more peeps than would actually fit in the baskets. Oh well, I guess we will just have to eat some! :)

Mommy, and grandma's basket. That Easter Bunny is good!

This looked much better before the kids dug in, but I didn't take a picture of the finished basket, and mommy slept in on Easter morning, so I missed it when they saw it the first time.

Dyeing Eggs

So here it is the night before Easter and we still have NO eggs ready for the Easter Bunny. What's a family to do? Well boil some eggs of course and get them ready!

Clean, cooled boiled eggs ready to be dyed!
Our PAAS dye in coffee mugs, just like we used to do it when I was a kid.

Drop cloth down, everyone ready! Be silly, Go!

Emily in her egg dying shirt, a girl has gotta dress for the occasion, right?

The little Marine ready to dye his eggs!

You can't really tell but Grandma wrote a special secret message on those eggs for the kids. Just like when i was a kid!

Grandma trying to figure out what to draw on the egg for Emily.

Emily dying her egg pink, of course!

Ben's special egg he told Grandma what to draw, but won't tell anyone else.

Oh a shark, of course, to match your pjs that you have been in all day!

and water, of course the shark needs that!

Grandma and Bubba sharing a special moment of arguing most likely... that boy LOVES to argue, sound familiar gma? LOL!

Grandma dyeing her own "special egg"

Our eggs. Look in the far corner and you will see grandma's "special" egg, it said "mommy". Thanks, mom!

All of the eggs going into the fridge for the Easter Bunny, I hope he comes tonight! Now off to bed with the two of you!

I made such a big deal about going to sleep Emily woke up about midnight bawling because she was coughing ALOT and having a hard time sleeping and she told me "Mommy, I can't sleep and the Easter Bunny is NOT going to come." I had to put her in bed with me just to calm her down. Wow, I think they will need some therapy soon! :)

Edited Photos

So I am trying my hand at editing my photos. Yes, I know, I should have been doing this A LONG TIME AGO, but what can I say....

Here are some vacation pics I have edited. Tell me what you think. Do they seem better than the others I have been posting? Should I even bother? :)

Good Friday

So...we went to "Houston Grandma's" for Easter weekend. We drove down there on Thursday night, and on Good Friday we split up and the girls went and did their thing and the boys hung out together. The first picture is what I saw when we got home. I know it is out of order, but I just cant delete them all this morning and then upload again...sorry. :) And btw...these were all taken using my phone...so the quality may not be wonderful!

The boys went to run errands, and the girls went to get mani's and pedi's!

This was grandpa's interpretation of a hair cut at the barber shop, but it is really growing on me and I like not having to brush it EVER!

Emily getting her fingernails done.

Emily waiting on me to get my manicure.

Emily wanted pink on one foot and....

purple on the other!

CUTE piggies!

My piggies...Em picked the color and the flower!

Gifts

Well...I should post something about either our vacation or Easter, BUT...I am going to post about a gift I received last week instead.

Just to give you some background, you should probably know that I am an editor for an educational publishing company. My job can be fairly demanding, and I often need to check my email often. Also, I am addicted to all things computer, social networking, writing, and music. So when it was time to upgrade my phone, can you guess what I wanted?

Well if you guessed an iPhone, you would be correct. Even though I am also fairly spoiled by the hubby, and anyone else who knows me. ;) He told me unequivocally NO, no uncertain terms would I be getting an iPhone. You see I think he was coming from not only a financial standpoint, but also a long standing hatred for anything Mac related. You see he is a Aggie mechanical engineer, and a PC guy. VERY PRACTICAL.

SO...I finally relented and said, I will take whatever you get me. I just REALLY need a new phone.

Well...I came home on Wednesday and he is sitting at the computer. He says, do you want your anniversary present now, or do you want to wait until the end of the month? Well, can you guess what I said? (remember I am spoiled) I want it NOW... :)

He hands me a little black box...with...my...NEW...YEP....have you guessed yet???? iPHONE!

See I am spoiled...but I love it...and I love the phone...and now I need to find a way to spoil him for our 15th as well...we are already having a party...any other ideas????

Thanks sweetie, I do appreciate it, and truly LOVE it!

Lunch with Pooh and Friends

On Monday we had lunch with Pooh Bear and his three friends, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet. This was the lunch I really wanted. I love all these guys! I always have loved them. Eeyore is my favorite these days. I love how all these characters represent different feelings. Eeyore is gloomy, Pooh is happy, Piglet is scared, and Tigger is excited. I tend to be gloomy at times so Eeyore is my favorite! But having said that, I have all these feelings so they are all my favorite! Enjoy the pictures.

Look at the happiness!
Emily loves hugging all the characters. They were like big stuffed animals to her.

Look at Em hugging his leg.

Tigger is daddy's favorite.

But then again, we all LOVE Tigger! Doesn't everyone? Look at the happiness!

Gotta hug Pooh Bear. He is so huggable!

We all love Pooh Bear!

Piglet was Ben's favorite. We also realized that Emily blended right in. She was wearing the same color pink as Piglet!

We're on our way...

I know these posts are going to be out of order and very random...but that is me...Ms. Random...lol. Really I am just posting in the order that I am remembering things. I really intended to blog every day we were gone, but the wireless was nonexistent in our resort. The dial-up thing just wasn't working for me so now I am forced to tell the story in the pieces as they come to me.

So this was the first time the kids have ever been on a plane. I think that experience was just as exciting as the prospect of going to Disney World. I was so worried about how it would be on the plane. I took my laptop and some movies just in case they got bored, but I didn't even need to take them out. I made them special busy bags that fit nicely on their carry-on suitcases. I will post about those later.

Emily was excited to find two new books, a Tinkerbell to color, a little princess coloring book with stickers, and the crayon rolls I made both the kids at Christmas. Oh and I almost forgot she put her Ariel doll in there, too. Ben had similar things in his bag, but he only had daddy read him the books and then was content to listen to daddy's earbuds to the satellite radio in the arm rests. He also helped daddy do his Sudoku puzzles. Emily and I spent quality time coloring and talking.
Here are some pics of the morning.

Morning with the Princesses

On Wednesday we went to have breakfast in Cinderella's castle with all the princesses. Emily was so excited and from the moment we stepped on the plane to fly to Florida that is all she could ask about. She just kept saying, when are we going to see the princesses, mommy? Every park we went to she looked for the princesses, and alas to her dismay she didn't see any of them .

I was a little worried because the night before she started crying and telling me how sad she was that EVERYONE but her had a princess dress, and she wanted to look pretty for the princesses the next morning. So with my heart breaking in two, Chris and I went on a search for a princess dress in the hotel. We did not find one, and I did not realize the shops at Downtown Disney were open until midnight, oh well. We did however, find a shirt that she had wanted earlier in the weekend with Aurora on the front. We got her that and hoped it would be good enough.

Well the next morning she woke up extra early, and found her shirt. She was so excited and didn't mention the dress at all. I am so glad because I really didn't want to spend fourty dollars on a princess dress, but I so would have just to see her smile and make her day. Yes, you will do anything to make your children happy. ESPECIALLY in the happiest place on earth!

On the Disney Monorail that ran right by our hotel.
Ben would only take a picture with the armor. He was not excited to be in the castle with the princesses. He was afraid that all the boys at home would laugh at him. Sheesh.

Talking to Cinderella and getting her autograph.

Posing with Cinderella for a picture.

Waiting for the appearance of the first princess.

Practicing magic...Bibiddi Bobiddi Boo!

Wishes do come true...

Okay...maybe a cinnamon roll will help him feel better, and a sword of course.

See their faces....this picture tells a tale, don't you think?

From this point Emily is the only one who wanted to pose with the princesses. Here she is with Aurora, her favorite.

Jasmine...Lizzie's favorite princesses

More magic practice

Wow he is actually smiling in this one...I guess he likes Belle. And Emily...still beaming!

Very un-princess like bite of eggs.

Walking down the royal steps.

Ben fighting the knight.

Ben using his sword to fight and Emily backing him up with a little magic. Seems we have a Level 1 fighter and sorceress here!