No matter how insane and ridiculous they seem...

This video and song is at the top of the charts in our house right now. 

Greatness

Henry(9yrs) colored this for me. He is one of the coolest kids I know, and he's all mine!!! And the coloring book this came out of is pretty bad ass.

~ Children Of Mine ~

I could never know a greater love...

Saying OKAY is always OKAY

I read somewhere once that the best answer you can give in a marriage is "okay".  I have come to believe that this is so true. More than true, it should be added to the Bible or something.  No matter what Shug says, if I say okay, then everything is perfect.  Examples -  with my actual thought in parenthesis:

Hey babe,  I think the best way to make the chicken would be if you added more bla bla bla, and then roasted it with vegetables.

Okay  (Well look at me, I'm married to a chef. And since when did you know shit about roasting?)

Hey babe,  the cleaners is shrinking all the necks of my dress shirts. We should find a new cleaners.

Okay.  (Shug, necks of men's dress shirts don't just start shrinking after months at the cleaners, but months of beer and Mexican food after work at the "branch office" will make you weigh more which in turn makes your shirts tight around the neck)

Mec, can you believe how great that girl was on the Baylor team? She's an amazing player, I can't even believe she shoots like that.  And her height, I mean wow!

Okay.

This list of conversations could go on, but I know you get my point.  It's just so much easier to say okay and be done with it.  It prevents a lot of conversations from going any further than they should.

I love Shug, and this is just one small way I show my love, okay?

Front Porch Happy Hour

Spring Break 2012

The kids just finished spring break, and so did I, even though I'm not really breaking form anything.  We spent a little time in Austin, San Marcos and home.

 I took the kids to Six Flags.  I was crazy enough to think that lots of parents still had to work so surely it couldn't be that crowded... I don't know what happens to my brain, but clearly it wasn't working when I had this thought.  I did think the kids were going to think I was the BEST MOM ever for taking them, and on the drive over I told them we could stay as long as they wanted - even if that meant until closing time.  You would think that I was drunk when I was telling them all this but I wasn't, it was like I was possessed or something.  We got there and it was SO CROWDED.   The weather was great and so was the time spent with the kids, but, the lines were crazy long,  there were about a million teenagers wearing way to much eyeliner making out with their boyfriends, and I couldn't find "healthy vegetarian food" for my 12 yr old to save my life (whose kids is she anyway?).  I did use her as a decoy so I could take pictures of weirdos.  And this might just be my new favorite past time!

What in the hell is this dude doing at 6 flags?

Cowboy Casual ~

~ Outfit #1 that didn't make the cut ~

Shug had an awards banquet last Friday and I had the perfect outfit picked out.  I had known exactly what I was wearing for 3 weeks, which is huge deal.  I was going to be meeting his partners who live in another city, and I wanted to look really beautiful and hot make a good impression. Then on Friday morning while we were eating breakfast with the kids we had this conversation:

So, What are you wearing tonight?

I don't know, I guess jeans and boots. What about you?

Boots and jeans??? Why would you wear boots and jeans? Your not even a cowboy.

It's Cowboy Casual.  I told you that, or at least I though I told you. 

Kids guess what, you get to finish your breakfast in the living room watching cartoons! (kids run to the living rom)  COWBOY CASUAL??? Hell no you didn't tell me that.  Why does it have to have a theme? We're grownups.  It's like a damn costume party.

It's not that big a deal.  Just wear some jeans and that white pearl button shirt you have, that's perfect.


I can't believe this.  I'm just now finding out.  That only gives me 7 hours to figure out what I'm wearing.  What if I hadn't asked then I showed up in my Jackie O dress and everyone else was cowboy.  I'm probably going to need a xanax.

Are you going to drink to much tonight and then try to say someone slipped you a mickey like you did at that other work party?

Someone did slip me a mickey.



Heres the deal - If I was a size 6-8 maybe it wouldn't be a big deal, but I'm a 14.  And you don't just walk into any old store and pick up a kick ass Cowboy Casual outfit when your a 14.   It takes work to find a great outfit, and I hate the idea of dressing for a theme when it's not Halloween.

I dug around in my closet like a crazy person and dug out a few options.  I kept sending Shug pictures showing him what I might wear.  All while laughing my head off, which was wither because I thought I was funny or because I may have lost my mind a bit.  In the end I went to the Gap and found a white western cut shirt to wear with jeans and my Fry boots - and I felt like a dick until I got a little liquored up.

#2 Bewitched Cowgirl- didn't make the cut

#3 - Another no go

Something that has me thinking..

I happened upon a new blog today.  Something about it has me feeling excited and intrigued.  You know that moment when someone says or does something and you think I've had that idea, or at least an idea that was similar, and the words I used to describe it were different, but it evoked that same feeling, or at least something that was close to it...?  Or maybe it's just that it's a smart idea that resonates so loudly to me that it's familiar.  Either way, I'm jazzed to check out this new blog and see where it goes, and maybe, one day have something to contribute.
Check it out - It Starts With Momma

Spy's Like Us

I spent some time with my wonderful friend Penelope last night after the kids were all in bed. We laughed so hard my sides ached, and tried to solve the problems of the universe. And then... We used the BEST binoculars EVER and looked at all the neighbors houses. In all fairness, everyone had their lights off so we weren't peeping toms. But there's always next time.

Hockey Pucks~

We made it onto the jumbotron (sp?). Henry had gone to try to get a hockey puck so he wasn't in the shot. And that really sucked. The best part of the night was when Henry asked this older gentleman in a suit (who works for the Stars) "Do you know how a boy can get a puck around here?" I'm still laughing about that one!

Fu*k off Grim Reaper ~

Tomorrow will mark the first time in four years that Sister and I have had a full year without having to put someone we care about in hospice and have them die.  Tonight marks the anniversary of my Great Aunt Ruth's death, which was by far one our crazier deathcapades (I know that's not a word but it should be).

 I am celebrating.  Celebrating life and the living, and love and not having to tell someone that it is okay to "let go".  

I wanted to make this post all witty but for the life of me I can't figure out how.   I think I'll just include a really funny picture - that has nothing to do with death.  Because death pictures are never funny.

Sockbun reject

A note about the above picture:  Everyone on Pinterest, and the entire internet for that matter, looks so damn cute after they sleep in a sock bun.  The tutorials show them pulling them out the next morning and shaking out some serious model hair.  ME on the other hand, not so much.  In fact, I looked horrible,  and this picture  is one of the best shots I took.

Fabulous Weekend Trips & Shame-overs

Shug and I spent a wonderful weekend in Laguna Beach at the Montage.  It was my first trip to SoCal (see how cool I am, I already picked up the lingo).  The hotel was amazing.  I'm pretty sure their goal is to make every guest feel like a princess - and they more than succeeded.  It was beautiful and swanky... and even then I still managed to wake up on sunday with a shame-over.  Shug thought I had a hangover, the way I just laid there groaning with a pillow over my head, and I wish thats all it was.  We'd spent the day before having three perfect meals all accompanied by perfect drinks.  That would have been enough itself,  but more got the better of us, so we spent time on the beach, laying on a blanket, watching dolphins play in the ocean while sipping on drinks, and we strolled around town looking at cute shops and stopping in an oceanside bar or two to contribute to the local economy and sip a few drinks.  And by the end of the night I was saying how amazing this place was and how I didn't even need a passport to get here!  And Shug said that I said Are you kidding? about 150 times.  And I may have even talked about when I write my second novel and it's a huge hit...  but the thing is I haven't written my first novel yet.  So yea, I woke up with a major shame-over,  bitching about the evils of alcohol.
It was still a perfect weekend, as I was able to shake that dumbass shame-over feeling after a day (or two) and Shug still thinks I'm a damn good catch.

Five minutes after we got in the room ~

That's me a beachy (I know it's not a word) and boozy ~

There was a note in the room letting us know what time the sunset would be each evening we were there!

15 Years...

Shug and I have been married 15 years.  In that time there have been more than a million I love you, almost as many I'm sorry, some do-overs, some I'm finished, tons of laughter, 2 kids, 1 dog, 1 house and I would do it all again.  That's the thing that makes me the happiest.  That in the deepest part of my soul I know that I would marry him again,  in a heart beat.  Would I marry someone else if something happened to him? Never!  Not because I believe there is only one love or that I could never love again after him - I'm just knowing that marriage is a lot of work, and sometimes it's a beating and basically I would be to selfish to ever put up with and put it all out there again.  But for him, I would.  So here's the card I gave him, and I think it pretty much sums it all up.

For the record, I still haven't gotten an answer from him on this one.