Chinese, anyone?

Grandma sent us some chopsticks and chopstick holders last week, so we ordered Chinese for dinner. Upon Gena's glowing recommendation, we opted for Hong Kong Chef. I have to say, it was pretty good! The rice really is perfect for chopsticks. It can't beat Panda House, but nothing can. I miss that Chinese Mafia ran restaurant. Seriously wasn't the seating area a little small for the size of that building? And one time Josh and I saw a man walk into the long 2 way mirrored hallway with a suitcase handcuffed to his arm, well, I saw it anyway...ah, but I digress.

So Piper gave it a valiant effort. She held the chopsticks with her right hand, picked up her chicken with her left, stabbed the chicken on the stick, took a bite and declared success.

Brenna really liked the idea of trying out chopsticks,

but found it a little frustrating,

And eventually got hungry and gave up!

Just for the record, there were only two sets of chopsticks, so Josh and I used forks. :)

Informal poll

Do you like the green background?

I can't decide...i kind of think i don't.
______________________

Ok, the more I come back to look at it, the more it has become clear I don't love it. But feel free to leave your opinion. I nothing else to post these days!

_______________________

Poll is closed.
I hated the green this morning.

Consider this your personal invitation...

(Click on the picture to enlarge)

This month is my birthday

Yup, that is right, I am claiming the whole month. My mom has done it for years, so I can too!

So, I have had a fantastic birthday.
I'm 36.
Wow.
T.H.I.R.T.Y. S.I.X.
That is a whole other post of it's own...

So, I have had a fantastic birthday.
I have been given many wonderful gifts.

• My talented sis-in-law made me some beautiful notecards and packaged them with a Starbucks gift card.
• My favorite Aunt Jaye gave me a elegant cake platter. (This is the second or third white serving dish she has given me and I REALLY like them!!!)
• My parents are feeding my scrapbook addiction with Cricut cartridges and a little (a lot) blow money.
• The friend I have known longer than I haven't gave me a cool necklace & earring set.
• My in-laws gave me a magazine subscription - in addition to keeping the girls at their house for the entire week of Spring Break.
• My girls (with a LOT of help from Grammy) bought me an amazing necklace & earring set.
• My sweet husband took me shopping (AT THE MALL-without looking at his watch once!) and bought me three shirts and a pair of shoes.
• I also celebrated with a shopping day with my cousin-in-law/friend, a lunch date/spontaneous trip to Guthrie with a treasured friend, dinner with some high school buds, some glorious sunny days, an excuse to thank my parents, some great rainy nights, and some quiet time to regroup and refocus.

And I still have seven days left!!!
Thanks to everyone who used technology to send birthday wishes. Facebook, texts, emails, and phone calls were all great additions to my celebration!

Hairdon't

I got this email from Josh a little bit ago...

I tried braids today-- it didn't work out so well.
--Josh

I was laughing before I even got the attachment open, knowing the potential of what was to come.

For those who don't know, Monday is Daddy Daughter day at our house and has been for years. Josh does a great job with everything including hair, clothing, entertainment, naps, etc. I can't imagine a better Dad than the ones my girls have. They are blessed because of him (me, too) and someday they will have the capacity to comprehend that, but for now, they just have fun!!

Sorry to showcase the 'Don'ts', but this really is too funny not to share. And also know that the headband was most likely Piper's idea!

Our house is so quiet

We talked to the girls last night. Piper had just gotten out of the tub. She told us she missed us and was having fun. When we tried to find out what she had been doing, she said she needed to go get dressed. That was the end of that.

Brenna was still in the bathtub and is living such a life of luxury this week that she was handed the phone to chat amongst her bubbles. She was happy, and excited to talk to us. She told us she made us several cards. Then the conversation went like this...

Us: What have you been doing with Grammy and Granddaddy?
Her: Uhh...today I got to do nine special things.
Us: Nine? Wow!!! Tell us 5 of them.
Her: Well, we got to play in Granddaddy's truck twice, go to McDonalds, go down the laundry shoot, went to...

I have no idea what her last thing was because I was laughing so hard. Yes, you read that right, they went down the laundry shoot!!! I guess that is pretty special!

Oh, how I love and miss my babies. But clearly they are having a great time without us.

We'll chat again in Thursday. I'm sure I'll have another story to share.

It's that time again

These precious girls are about to spend a week with Grammy and Granddaddy.

I have a long list of things I want to do while they are gone. Important stuff.

scrapbooking...finish the three novels I've started...organize closets...shopping at the mall...Barnes and Noble...going out for a nice steak dinner...not picking up or tripping over toys...

Like I said, important stuff. And I will try to squeeze it all in between bouts of crying on the couch because of loneliness and despair. teeheehee

our weekend road trip

We went to Coleman, Texas (down near Abilene) by way of southeast Dallas. It was nice to spend time with Steve and Keitha, but unfortunately we got there late and they had places to be the next morning, so the visit was short. They have a lovely, comfortable home. Thank you for letting us crash. We hope to see you again soon!

And here are the girls with Aunt Mary and Uncle Donald. I can't tell you how much my girls loved them. Piper instantly took to Mary and sat in her lap and stuck by her side. This morning she told me she misses Aunt Mary. I know Bren will remember this trip for a quite a while. ...maybe because they got to go to Dairy Queen and meet the Fun Bunch, or maybe because they got to eat whatever they wanted, or maybe because they had full run of the large full cable television. But I think it will really be because they knew how much they were loved and enjoyed while they were there.
Thank you for a wonderful visit. We'll come again!

The Fun Bunch

The following story ran in the Texas Country Report in November of 2008. It is lengthy but worth watching.

The beautiful woman in the cream colored suit is Josh's Aunt Mary. She is an amazing woman from whom I can learn a great deal. After seeing this and hearing her talk about her "Fun Bunch", I realized this is what I crave.

Why do we fill our lives with busyness and not take time, real time, to cultivate friendships that last a lifetime? Our generation and community do really lend themselves to this kind of bonding, as great as our technology and resources are. Blogging, Instant Messaging, Facebook, email and texting just doesn't compare to nor create these friendships.


Untitled from Josh Bailey on Vimeo.


So don't be too surprised if you get a call from me asking if you want to meet for coffee some time. And know that if you call me, I will do my best to make myself available for it!

Eleven years ago today...

Josh and I sat on the front porch of Granny's house in Coleman, Texas. We sat and listened to the swing squeak and the neighbor kid bounce his basketball. He was far enough away that we heard the bounce when he hand touched the ball. The breeze was just right. The clouds were building gently above us.

Josh told me he loved me. I told him the same.
Comfortable silence.
Josh told me how happy he was I was in his life. I told him the same.
Comfortable silence. Maybe even a little nap.
Josh told me he wanted to spent the rest of his life with me. Before I could tell him the same, he pulled out an amazing diamond ring and asked me to marry him. I, of course, said yes!!
We hugged and kissed. I cried. We sat in the swing a little bit longer.
It started to rain a sweet gently spring rain.
Josh offered to dance in the rain with me, an expression of love his part.
I declined the offer, an expression of love on my part.
More comfortable silence watching the neighbor boy bouncing his ball.
Then we went inside and told Granny. She was delighted to be the first to know.

And today, I am in Coleman, Texas for the wedding of a cousin.
Irony? I don't know, but I have enjoyed the strong memories it brought back.

I love you, Josh, more today than that day. And I sure loved you a lot back then.

Our budding author

Brenna wrote this book entirely on her own. She drew the pictures, stapled it, then asked me to write the words for her. My first instruction was to draw an exclamation bubble!

I love this book. But I absolutely LOVE this girl!!

click pictures to enlarge

Teeth are falling out left and right

literally.

Oklahoma Sky

Did anyone else witness this night? It was amazing.

I wish my little Sony digital did it any justice at all.

Only God can do something like this. I see it as another blessing in my day.

And while I am at it, this is the full moon the morning of February 10th. I was heading out for a walk and ended up sitting and watching this for a while.

Puss Ann Guest GIVEAWAY!!!!

Puss Ann Guest GIVEAWAY!!!!

This photo shoot location reminds me of our barn in Tennesse as a kid.

My dad sent this today.

This is a picture of my mom, my sister and me, probably taken in late summer of 73.

It makes me kind of melancholy.

I remember the Raggity Ann doll Chressen (my sister) is holding. We also had an Andy doll.

It is kind of ironic that he sent this today. Just this morning I was thinking about scanning in one of my favorite childhood pictures and blogging about my parents.

Lately, I have really been missing my family. We talk often and email regularly. But I miss being in the same room with them. I miss some of the stuff that used to drive me nuts as a kid, like how my mom holds coffee in mouth for just a few seconds before she swallows or how my dad can passionately argue either side of an argument, just for the sake of argument. I miss hearing Dad laugh at David Letterman and watching Mom doodle while she talks on the phone.
I just miss them.

And even yesterday, for the first time in an extremely long time, I thought "Chressen would crack up at that.", in reference to something Dad did. And she's been gone for 23 years.
I still miss her. Or maybe I miss the idea of her.

My parents made my childhood a great adventure. And through the rough stuff of life, they made our family the priority.
I am blessed.

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

I would be interested to see if Piper would wear this!!

Communication is vital

So...(how many times do my stories start with "so...") Sunday was kind of busy day around our house. After messing up the kitchen royally, going to a friends house after church, not getting home until after 10 and finally putting the girls to bed, I was too exhausted, lazy, whatever, to clean the kitchen. This could have been a fine decision but for two things. 1. A plumber was coming to our house in the AM and 2. Josh's parents were coming in the PM.

Fast forward to 9:45am, minutes before the plumber was scheduled to arrive. My sweet husband, working quickly to tidy the kitchen so the man would have a place to work, tucks a few remaining dishes in the oven. Yes, you know where this going.

Fast forward to 5:30pm, hours after my sweet husband has forgotten his quick fix to my lack of cleanliness, I begin fixing an impressive dinner for my in-laws (I really don't try to impress them anymore. Thankfully, they know me and love me as I am). A lovely portobello chicken which requires the final touch of a quick broiling to melt the heavenly provolone cheese and trap the bacon. As I begin sauteing those mushrooms, I preheat the broiler.

Need I say more? Not when I picture is worth a thousand words, or so they say.

This was immediately after I discovered what was making that wretched smell in my kitchen.

A close up of the gooey mess.

Turns out this is/was my very favorite, most-used tupperware dish and lid. Thankfully, we were able to salvage the spatulas, spoon, pot, cake pan and cookie sheet. We did have a casualty of a knife. By the time the plastic cooled enough to touch, it had encased the knife in a secure tomb. Really, it could have been MUCH worse!


Oh, and while I am thinking of it...check out Andrea's give away this week!

Piper is in speech therapy. (Have I shared this yet? Hmmm...this might be new to many of you.) She goes twice a week to a lovely woman here in our great town. As a side note, she is doing remarkably well and we all are very pleased with Piper's effort, work and results.

The building we go to is a small building with about 5 or 6 offices all rented by different people and occupations. They all share on set of public restrooms. I can only speak for the women's restroom here, and say it is a "one seater" with a separated sink area...you know, a little waiting area inside the bathroom.

On the inside of the stall in the restroom is a sign that says; "Make sure the toilet seat is cleaned before you leave this room." Nice. But really, what toilet cleaning person wouldn't want to post that on every bathroom in the house.

On the outside of the stall door is this:


Seriously? Do you think one of these offices is rented by a therapist who specializes in Ligyrophobia?* And is therapy really something we are "under"? In my opinion, the only thing this sign is missing is a few mis"quotes".

*Which brings me to a completely unintended topic. Check out this list of phobias. Who knew!?! I need to go over this list carefully. As many as there are, surely I have ONE of them. :)

Also, this morning Piper picked a few clothes to take when she goes to visit Mama Mia's house next week.

New dessert - Cake Pops

We found this recipe on Bakerella. We are NO Bakerella, but after a few tries we got it figured out. And even the ones that didn't look great, sure tasted great!!

Just a regular old cake, we used Red Velvet.

A can of icing - we found a whole can actually was a little much.

Mix it all together. Pretty easy.

It really is better if you use your hands...

And there are perks!

form balls and put them on lollipop sticks

Dip in almond bark.
(These were too big. I should have rolled them smaller because the weight was too much for gravity.)

We opted to decorate these for Valentines day and give them to B's teachers.

The second batch we mastered...ok, Josh mastered. :)

White cake and white icing dipped in chocolate almond bark with sprinkles.

We are also considering dipping in fudge. And making chocolate cake with peanut butter icing dipped in fudge.

Invisible Friend

So...it turns out Piper has an invisible friend. So far she is just a friend that we talk about, not to or with. And we aren't saving placing at the dining table or on the couch for her. Whew.

This is what we know so far...
She is a grown up like Mama.
She has brown hair.
Her daddy's name is Josh.
Her sister's names are Piper and Brenna.
She likes to play dolls and doctor.
She has two dogs; Sam and Wa-Wa (Chihuahua).
She lives in a big house, but likes to play at our house.

Her name, you ask? Well, her name is...

Mama Mia

Go figure.

Children's Museum and Rocket Park

Miss Kari invited us to join her at the Children's Museum after school yesterday. If you haven't been, I really recommend it. The girls had a great time.

Here are a few pictures....

B running the merchant store

Pipes working and cleaning

Of course, we played with the trains

Working the bank

Then we headed outside to the park right beside the Museum, which is a favorite of ours.

Piper, Isaac, Bren and Stone all climbed up here while the grown ups were not paying attention.
Yes, that is Piper and Bren way up at the top. Piper asked if she could go up and I told her no because it was too high (really because I didn't want to go up in there after her). She then said "Please? I'm a big girl!" So, I let her go, I mean after all, she had just shimmied up the monkey bars with out any trouble. After she got up there and was ready to come down, I heard this very quiet little "Help". Ugh. Thankfully, Brenna and Isaac were quick to the rescue and showed her how to get down.


While you are spending time on blogs, go check out my sister-in-law's blog (and her etsy site), she is giving away stuff!

Busy Weekend

We had a great weekend. I packed as much in as I possibly could!

Friday when Miss B got out of school, we headed to the Zoo. We were there past the point of exhaustion! We ate lunch when we got there, then headed to the play ground. I have never really understood why we play on a playground at the Zoo. I mean, we have a playground in our backyard, the park and even the mall. Why play there when we could be seeing all the animals??? Anyway, after that we because the animal tour. I had never been on the Oklahoma Trail so we headed that way. I really enjoyed that. If you haven't gone through there, you really need to.

We spent at much time with the bronze statues as we did looking for animals. Apparently there are over 60 of those statues through out the Zoo. I am currently working on confirmation of that little factoid. I guess until I get confirmation it is just a rumor. I think we found 6, BUT we probably only went to 1/3 of the Zoo before we headed home. I got some great shots, but they were with my 35mm camera so I don't have any electronic copies yet. ...probably won't.

Saturday our day started with a friends birthday party. Piper and I left a little early to go get Daddy and Brenna for the big event of the day. INCREDIBLE PIZZA.

Brenna quickly reached the mother of all ticket rewards and it was time to celebrate. Go here for a reminder of the behavior chart. Bren was allowed to invite one friend to go with us to celebrate. She chose Collin..and Katie...and Matt...and Alyssa. Have you been here? Holy Cow!!! That really is all I can say. The kids loved it. Can I just leave it at that? Really, we had a good time, but it was completely overwhelming to me. My girls were all starry eyed and walking into things because there was so much stimulation they couldn't even focus on where they were walking. Everyone else was running around like crazy - especially when they threw prize tickets on the floor. The lights and noises were almost enough to induce an epileptic seizure!! But the kids loved it! We were given several tokens that we greatly appreciated. However, Incredible Pizza has moved forward in time and doesn't really use tokens anymore. They now have Incredible Pizza debit cards. I"m not kidding. There were two machines that we found that used tokens, so we fed those machines, took our tickets and cashed out. B&P accrued 225 tickets, which got them a box of Tinkerbell crayons and a roll of sour Smarties. I think Collin got a mini game of Skipbo and a bouncy ball with his 180 tickets.

See what I mean about not being able to focus?
Usually those little girls are all about the camera!

Daddy feeding the Ticket Eater

"Thank you Brenna for doing so good on your chart
that I get to go to Incredible Pizza!"

Waiting our turn to cash out. Look at those prizes. Can you see the amount of tickets necessary to get them? Brenna had her heart set on the My Little Pony doll that was 1200 tickets.

And because my husband is SO good to me, I was able to go work on my scrapbooks (yes, that is now plural) both nights this weekend! Isn't he the best ...oh wait...it gets better...he was even sick this weekend and STILL encouraged me to go both nights. I do love that man!!!

Number 3

and three more loose ones!

America's Top Model?

I can only say...
Oi Vey!!!

Please tell me we are NO WHERE near this!! Please.

More pictures to come when I finally sit down and do it. Until then, look at this great little gadget!