I'm Baaaacck!

Whoa, Nelly! Does this feel weird!?!?
Its been almost a year since I've typed in here, and what a year its been!
We have been so blessed with so many great memories and successes, and part of me is sad that I have to rely on myself to remember those great times, rather than be able to look back on here, like I was able to do for a few years.

And I have missed blogging. I have missed taking the time to put those memories down and share them with those that aren't with me everyday. So I made the decision to come back, pick up a year later and fill myself in on the way. Here's a photo look at our 2010:

.....and here's to 2011!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

Flashback Friday 1996: Wigging Out

I love pictures that make you laugh, even when you've seen them a hundred times. Thats how I feel about this picture:

My high school friend and college roommate, Stacy and I were on one of the many trips we took to Austin together before we started school down there. We always stayed in my grandpartents guest house, and once we discovered that some of my grandmother's old wigs were in the closet in there- it was all over! I think anytime we went down there, we had to take a wig pic. I found this one with Alyshia getting in on the fun, too! Ha! Good times...

Flashback Friday

I love this picture of my parents at their wedding reception

I love how my mom is checking out her new wedding band.

I love that luckily someone just happened to candidly catch such a sweet moment.

Happy Friday To All The Lovebirds Out There! :0)

I Got Nuthin'

So... We've all been sick and there hasn't been anything worth anything going on around here... I've been getting to do ALOT ot TV watching though, so I thought I'd give a shout out to my new favorite shows (just in case you don't have enough to do that you need to add a few more TV watching hours to your day!)

I've also added a "Husband Watching Rating (HWR) based on how many times during the show does Jas asks me when its going to be over! ha!

My Fair Wedding With David Tutera

(Style Network)

OMG. I want this guy to be my best friend. He is a doll, and is so kind and sweet to these clueless women! You will die at some of the themes these women come up with. One girls wanted "Country Bling" and had hot-glued colored rhinestones to those brown paper-mache pigs you can buy at the Hob Lob! I would not lie to you. Sometimes his decor is a little over the top (and do all brides really need to change into "party dresses" for their receptions???) but I love him. LOVE. HIM. I would make up a crazy wedding and buy hideous gowns and make bouquets out of candy (yes, someone did that, too!) just so I could meet David!
HWR: 2 (and I think only because its an hour long and it is about weddings!)

The Good Wife

(CBS)

Every episode of this show gets better (and I missed the first two, which I'm sure explained alot more about her husband's scandal) but Julianna Margulies is so likable, and the cases are great! I LOVE LOVE Kalinda (the in-house investigator). She is such a bad ass. Watch it. Seriously. (You can get it On Demand too...)
HWR: 0 (He loooooooves it too- always gets mad if I turn it on when he's ready to lay down because he knows he has to watch it! heehee)

Guilana And Bill

(E! and Style Network)

I hate to admit this, but I think this is one of the cutest reality shows ever. They are such a cute couple: I love how she's wacky (not to mention her assistant, Matthew "Jacobi"- hilarious!!!) and he is so straight-on and serious. I love how he puts up with her and humors her. They are precious. Seriously mindless fun. There are always marathons on the weekend, so make a pot of coffee, stay in your jammies and catch one. Promise,  you'll love them.
HWR: 1 (He thinks she is ridiculous - in a silly way- but watched 2 hours of this 30 minute show with me this weekend while the kids were napping. So there.)

Clean House

Style Network

 (I promise you, I never watched this channel until we all got sick!)

We only like the ones when Nicey is the host. She is so funny- and the team is equally cute (although I can't stand the colors that Mark paints the rooms- tacky, tacky.) We really started watching this in the hotel when we were in Austin at Thanksgiving. It was the Messiest House In America winners episode which was 2 hours long and had come on at like, 11pm! We were holding our eyes open to watch the end!!! This woman and her daughter were 10 kinds of crazy. They had so much stuff in their house that the team had to rent out a WAREHOUSE! for the "Yard Sale" and it was set up like a department store. They made over $17,000. $17,000!!!! And then at the reveal, the mom takes one look in her new, cleaned out and organized closet and went psycho screaming that they had stolen her purses and stormed out of the house. It was CRAZY!!!!! Jas was hooked. He's in our room watching it right now.
HWR: big fat-daddy 0!!! He loves it!

Community

(NBC)

I have loved Joel McHale for years thanks to The Soup. I think he is hilarious, so when I found out he was going to be on a sitcom, I was first in line.. on my couch. I was a little scared because I had high hopes for Parks and Recreation and I couldn't handle it. Made me twitch. Scared they were going to be the same odd slow pace. But OH MY GOSH! Community is so funny there are simply no words. Every character is greatness. The story lines are so silly and over the top. And did I mention it SO funny???? We look forward to Community night each week. Be careful: If you TiVo it, make sure you tell it to record 2 minutes after the ending time so you don't miss Troy and Abed's shinanigans.

HWR: 0!!!! He asks me every weeknight if its going to be on!

Now, add these to Big Love, The Biggest Loser, The Bachelor, Keeping Up The Kardashians and House and I have plen-ty to keep me occupied while I fold laundry.
;0P

Theme Trees

When I was up at the school helping Olivia's class do a project during their Holiday party, I had a moment there I saw "What Could Have Been". The kids were filling the inside of glass ball ornaments with acrylic paints and rolling them or shaking them to make pretty marbled designs. They were allowed to choose two colors, but when I made the rounds a little girl in her class insisted on only using white. I asked her a couple time if she was sure she didn't want to add another color, and she insisted that she only. wanted. white. Okay. Who am I to mess with someone's artistic vision, right? So once the ornaments were complete, I went around with some glitter paint pens and wrote each child's name on their beautiful keepsakes. When I got around to this little girl, I asked her if she would like red, gold or silver paint for her name. Without blinking, she said, "silver." I asked if she was sure, because silver on white might not show up every well, and wouldn't she prefer one of the other colors. She told me no, that she HAD to have silver. "What do you mean you have to have silver?", I asked her and she turned to me and said, "My mom only allows white or silver ornaments on our tree. If I want to hang it up it has to be white and silver." Oh. My. Gosh. It broke my heart. I had a moment where I wondered how many ornaments and things had she brought home that didn't make the cut? Was 2nd grade the year when she wasn't going to let it happen again? And the thing was: there was serious potential that that could have been my kid.

When I was in my early 20, and before I had children, I had great visions of what my own personal Christmas trees would look like. When I lived with Alyshia, we did "A Few Of My Favorite Things" tree, compelte with hot chocolate packet and concert ticket ornaments. The next year, my girlfriends and I did an "Everything Shiny" tree with tons of Mexican tin ornaments (it helped that they were about $1 a piece at the fabulous folk art store down the street) and anything else we could find that fit our college kids budget. We made ornaments out of our favorite pictures of us and with our neighbors, who we shared the holiday with. The decor was always really reflective of where I was in my life, and what I loved...

Before I was married, (and my mom loves to remind me) I proudly proclaimed that one day, I would have a beautiful theme tree done up just how I wanted it. At that point my mom pointed out that one day I would be faced with a bunch of green painted popcicle-stick christmas trees and hand-print reindeer ornaments. What would I say then to my child hoping to hang their hand-made creations on my "theme" tree? she teased. My heart-less-child-less-at-the-time-response: "This tree has a theme and theme is not crap." Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh- what a mean non-Mommy I was!!! So of course, when Miss O brought home her first little tiny precious face in the middle of a finger-painted ceramic present ornament, I melted and couldn't hang it on the tree fast enough.

People always say, "Just wait til you have children!" and you can never really understand what they are telling you until you do. You would do anything for them: You will gag while you peel the cover off of those tiny Vienna sausages because that's all they will eat for two weeks straight- but they don't like the skin. You will sleep on the floor and hold their little hand for nights on end while they get used to sleeping in a Big Kid bed even though you can hardly stand up straight the next day. You'll let them breath their toxic germs on you when they have the stomach flu and the only way you can get them to sleep is in your bed next to you. You'll drive 30 minutes back to their preschool and bribe the janitor to let you in after you've just arrived home after a long days' work only to discover that you have left their favorite blanket there. You will drive to every store on the planet to buy a silly toy because it keeps a dream alive. And you will most certainly hang their ornaments on your tree.

Cookie Party

H and Lysh came over today so we could gab about the other night's shinanigans!! to bake some Christmas cookies! I love that the kids are old enough now to where we can do projects and they can really help. They helped us crack the eggs, add the sticks of butter and stir. So fun! And SO CUTE!

I LOVE these little chefs!

Time Machine

Don't you love old friends?

The ones who loved you when wore Princess Leia buns and knee-highs with converse sneakers?

The ones who held your hand when you called that guy you had a crush on, and then smoothed your hair as you cried in her lap when he stood you up?

The one who you have a million pictures with when you two were in rare form?

The one who doesn't look at you like your nuts when you decided that you must, must! make personalized shirts to wear to the neighbor boys' soccer game?

The ones who would totally be up for going out dancing almost directly from the theater after you all caught the 10:30pm showing of "Save The Last Dance"?

Ah, good times made better by a good friend- those were the days!

My fabulouso girlfriend Karly came into town for TX/OU weekend and came over to see us before she headed back out of town. When we stopped and thought about it, we hadn't seen each other in almost 2 years! Not since Bubs was Morgan's age- which is just crazy. Never again. It was so incredible to catch up and made me realize, as always, what an amazing person she is and how much I love our friendship.

The other day when my mom was here, we had one of those random discussions when she was telling me where in time she would go back to if she had a Magic Time Machine- aside from the obvious (wedding, birth of children...) She would go back to the arm of her grandfather's leather chair and have him read her Dr. Squash, The Doll Doctor, just like he used to do when she was a little girl. Where would I go? I would go back to the porch of this little house I rented with Karly and our friend Stacy when I was 21. It had three steps and a black iron railing that curved to welcome you as you came up. The concrete was painted a dark burgundy and was chipped and cracked. It was where we spent so much of our time that year. If I could go anywhere, I would sit there and have an ice cold Dos Equis that we had picked up- along with a sad looking lime- at the little market on the corner of West Lynn and 1oth on the way home from work. It would be early Fall, where it was a little chilly, but nothing that a hoodie or a scarf couldn't fix. I would look across the street at the home of our hippie older neighbor who once lent us glue (I can't remember what for) and we realized his whole living room was filled with bongos. Fabulous. I would wave at the precious, hip couple who lived next door as she arrived home. I would sit with Karly and Stac, and we would talk about our day, and where we wanted to go out that weekend. If I could, I would breathe in the Austin air and hear the faint sound of Gomez or Big Head Todd being played on the stereo in the living room. And I would enjoy that moment of just being young. Because I know at the time, all I could think about was "growing up." I would just sit and soak it in and have that back for just a while.

I am so thankful for that year.

For my girlfriends.

For that porch.

I often think about how I am blessed with such amazing, unique women for friends. And how lucky I am that they all will always be a part of my past, my present and my furture.

Us At The TX/ OU Game -October 2000

Mommy Mix Tape Vol. 2

So after a fun morning of stealing people's trash yesterday- Lysh and I got to talking (shocker!) about what else?: husbands, children, staying home, being crafty, needing an outlet... And we both came to agreement that thanks to our men's jobs that keep them at work til very late in the evening, we have come to look forward to that quiet time- whether its 10 minutes or 2 hours- after the kids are in bed, before they get home. I always pull my hair up, light some more candles, maybe pour a glass of wine and them put on some Mommy music. I might get on the computer, work on a project, make dinner for Jas or honestly, just sit there. Its a time where no one needs me but me. Its my way to clear my head before Jas gets home and be able to be all there for him when he does. So in honor of 7:30 to 9:00pm, I bring you:

Mommy Mix Vol. 2:
Sunrise by Norah Jones
All We Are by Matt Nathanson
The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson
PDA (We Just Don't Care) by John Legend
Edge Of The Ocean by Ivy
Winter Song by Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareilles
Sunday Morning by Maroon 5
Tread Water by Sara Bareilles
Hometown Glory by Adele
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight by Bob Dylan and Norah Jones
Do You Remember by Jack Johnson
Can't Help Falling In Love by Ingrid Michaelson
Make You Feel My Love by Adele

I'll Eat You Up! I Love You So!

Okay, so I can't sleep. 'Haven't been able to fall asleep before 1am in weeks. I think my poor body has gotten used to it now, so its not so bad- Thank God for good, strong coffee.

So what's a girl to do, laying in bed, wishing and praying that she could fall asleep, counting down the hours until she has to get back up??? Watch TV on Demand of course!And do you know that Time Warner cable has MOVIE TRAILERS you can watch? Movie trailers are one of my most favorite things about going to the movies (next to Jr. Mints mixed in popcorn) Seriously- if there are crummy trailers I feel a little jipped.

Anyway! So here I am, watching trailer, after trailer - they are in alphabetical order- when I come to this! I think- "No way! Am I reading this right??" But, yes! Lo and behold- LOOK !!! I am freaking out with excitement! I can recite this book without looking, our copy is tattered from being read at least once a week for the past 7 years to one child or another. I even had this picture framed in our kitchen back in college :This looks AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-mazing! Can't wait to take O! (And get the soundtrack- Supposed to be equally awesome! I'll letcha know!)

Drumroll.....

Okay! So I have been meaning to do this last week, but today I HAD to do it for my darling friend and her hubby, our contractor (Thanks, Cokers!) And so, without further ado....

A LITTLE PEAK AT OUR NEW OLD HOUSE!

BEFORE: Random beams that whack you in the head on the way to the door....

AFTER: Wide Open-ness Entryway!!! Whoohoo!

BEFORE: More beam-i-ness in the "Dining Room"...

AFTER: My new "Office/ Mommy Lounge-y" Space!

BEFORE: Living Room view....

AFTER: God Bless, Clivesden Leather and God Bless, Alyshia for also putting in on our fireplace grout!!! Voila!

BEFORE: Kitchen paint color from hell and wacky pantry...

AFTER: Crisp. Clean. Just the way I like it! Ahhhh....

BEFORE: Good-bye tile that was out to get me...

AFTER: Hello, I-Can-Mop-You -Clean-In-Two-Seconds-Flat floors! See my new pantry?? LOVE IT!BEFORE: Waiting for new appliances...

AFTER: TaDa!

BEFORE: No more laminate counter tops and back splash...AFTER: Loving the new ones and my bead board back splash.... (Decorating) Works in progess:

The Kids Bath:

Our Bathroom:

So! I need to take a minute to thank ALL of the people who made our little Dream Home possible: Jason's Mom and My Mom- We couldn't have done any of this without you! Marie and Royce Coker- Also, couldn't have done any of this without you! Alyshia and Stephanie- For being as House Crazy as I am- from paint colors to counter tops, you gave the best advice! Heather- For watching my "chid-wren" for me for practically two days straight, so I could unpack and not kill anyone! LOVE. YOU. Fan Target and Sarah- For being the best sisters EVER and helping me do everything from paint and to watch my kids. I owe you both. Big. Time. My Dad- Who else on the planet would drive back and forth from Frisco to C-Town 8 times in one day? Uh, yea, no one. Best Dad. Ever. The Speers Family, for letting us break out lease, Christina Lancaster, for watching over our house while we were gone, the sweet cashier at Lowes who we came to know from visiting her about 3 times a day...

Jas and I feel so grateful- for our friends, for our family and for the roof over our head.

We are SO very blessed.

For The Price Of...

...two Iced Venti Nonfat Caramel Macchiatos you can find some pretty serious bargains lately!

Lysh had told me about these precious little red BHG pedestal tables she saw at the 'Mart. It would be perfect for in the corner by my big windows! At the time they were about $25. Which is not too bad...but too much for me to get in the car and race out to get one. (I'm super cheap.) Well- then I had to stop at the 'Mart out here to get some painting supplies the week before we moved and what did I see- sitting in a pile up on the Clearance shelves??? A precious little red BHG pestal table with a red $10 sticker on it! What?!?! SOLD! Love it!Theeeen.... Jas and I painted a large chalkboard calendar on one of the kitchen walls. I knew I wanted to trim it out, so when I was at the HL yesterday, I searched through the 80% off open back frames and found this gem. "Please, oh, please be cheap" I chanted as I turned it over! Yes! 10 dolla's!!! Whoo hoo!!! Fifty-smifty...God Bless, Hobby Lobby and their crazy sales.

And theeeeen.... Yesterday, again at the Mart- I had to run in to get the missing ingredients to my World Famous Chicken Nuggest so I could make them for Jas (poor guy had to close two nights in a row, which meant eating dinner at 9:45pm-ugh!)- Anyway! I am walking in, minding my own business when I see a huge black and white "$10" sign at the top of the end shelf of one of the aisles, and then, like in slo-mo, I realize what they are selling for that smokin' price:

Only the huge hurricane candle holders that I have been coveting, but again- I am super cheap, and kept putting off buying!!! Just to be sure, I checked the glass for a big red sticker, and sure enough, my dream came true!!! As Hannah Montana would say, "Wha-BAM!" LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!

I have become completely spoiled. Seriously. Deal, after smokin' deal! But its making adding the finishing touches to our humble little home that much easier.... A few more days and I think I'll be able to sit down and put my feet up! (cross your fingers)

Almost There

The house is almost done.
The workers are gone.
The walls have been painted. Twice in some cases.
Pictures have been hung.
Royce is finishing up little things here and there.
There are more flat boxes in the garage then full ones in the house.
Olivia's room is the last one left to be unpacked.
The kitchen table is covered with the most random things that don't have a home yet.
We still do not have a fridge. Or stove. Or a dishwasher.

But we have new floors, countertops, faucets, lights, moldings, doors...
We have a beautiful "new" home that we walk from room to room in and are reminded of the joy we felt when we first got it: When there were just 4 of us and Bubs was younger than Morgan is now. We are reminded of the birthday parties and holidays we celebrated here. We smile at our first attempts at landscaping and the Smurf blue paint debaucle. We look out the drive-way and remember walking Olivia up to school on her first day of Kindergarten. We all grew up alot in this house in the short time that we were here at first.

And now we are back. A bigger family, with more love for each other and for what this house means to us. It is our center. Our "home plate". Our refuge. I have always wanted a home that when I walk in I feel like it is where I truely want to be. Where every room I walk in just feels right. And I wish that for my family and friends who come in as well. That they feel welcome and comfortable, that they want to stay awhile and visit. And its almost there.

Is it possible that the picture of my kids are even cuter when hung on these walls? Do my old curtains really look better over these windows? Does my coffee pot make better tasting coffee when sitting on these counters? Does sitting in the furniture on this patio night make the summer air smell even better? I think so, because in thier own way, they are adding the finishing touches to our Home, Sweet (Old/ New) Home. And we are almost there.

Diary Of A Mad Wallpaper..-er

Okay- When we moved into the house, the first thing we did was rip off properly remove all of the wallpaper that was in the kitchen. It was beige. It had navy and burgandy flowers. It was HOR-RI-BLE. It was a labor of love, and as we peeled away that wallpaper, we started cracking up at the wallpaper that was behind it. I would not lie to you: It looked like 80's fashion colored sperm. Yes, forest green, navy, burgandy, pink and turquiose SPERM, swimming all over the walls. I. die.

We had the huge mirrors that were in both of the bathrooms removed, soon to be replaced by stand-alone ones. I was talking to Royce yesterday, getting an update on the progress and he commented on what a pain in the tush it had been to get our master bathroom mirror down, and then he added with a laugh, "You should see all the wallpaper back there!" Now- I knew about the "80s Pinecones On Acid" wallpaper that we had lazily painted over given a quick make-over, but had NO idea about the many, many others that were hidden in there and in the kids bath!

I took a little sample of them to share- and WISH I had a piece of the two that were in the kitchen. Don't you just wonder the decorating plans that were made to go with each of these lovely samples???:

THE SHONKA HOUSE MASTER BATHROOM WALLPAPER TIMELINE

The "Little House On The Prairie"

Nice, tame beige. I feel as though this was somewhere in my home growing up.... The "Miami Vice Cherries"! Of course, the cherries have to be PINK, and the background has to be GRAY! Its the 80's folks. Don't you just know they had gray and pink towels?!?! They had too!!!

This is my FAVORITE! The "XY Chromosome" graphic. Please take a moment to take in the vibrant color palatte. Where else are you going to find purple with light brown? Pink with forest green?

"Pinecones on Acid"!! This was the wallpaper that was in our bathroom FLOOR TO CEILING- even in the window sills!- when we moved in! But I saw the potential! I knew she could be fixed! This wallpaper look came complete with HUGE navy glass ball knobs on the cabinets- we are talking golf ball size. Crazy town. Now, sadly... the kids bath wasn't as exciting. I guess because its the guest bath, and they didn't feel they had as much decorating freedom as the master!... But check out this festive paper. Kinda reminds me of Christmas wrapping paper. I will admit- done in a different color scheme, this could be fun. I could see myself decoupaging it to something...

Jas and I spent most of the day at the house painting. We got the flat pink of Olivia's tone-on-tone stripes done, the master bedroom (as high as we could reach without getting the ladder out) done, and I was able to put two coats on the kids bathroom cabinets. Now theres just the entry way, the hallways, the living room and the den/ office to do, the high peak of our master, our master bathroom cabinets.... Only. Sheesh.

Don't Let The Door Hit Ya' On The Way Out

Holy S#@t! There's nothing like walking into your house and having it look like a tornado ripped through there!! Whoo-hoo! The demo has begun!

We ran up to the house tonight to drop off some lights and I just about jumped up and down at the glorious destruction!


So, I take this time now to say a fond farewell to the parts of our house that are hitting the road (in teeny-tiny pieces- whahahaha!!!)...

Good-bye low random beams that served no purpose other than what I can only assume was to display tons of 80's fake plants! Oh, how we just about hugged our contractor when he told us you could come down!! How I will miss shaking the popcorn ceiling bits out of my hair as I walked under you as I answered the door...Adios, pantry that was oddly located facing the door out to the garage! Your strong shelves held all of my art supplies with care for years....(Oooooooo, I cannot wait to have a REAL pantry with a real door next to my fridge- not three wacky cabinet doors with braces that blocked the usable space!!! But don't tell the old pantry that!)

Auf Wiedersehen, awful tile that no matter how hard I Cinderella-On-My-Knees scrubbed you, you always looked dirty! Oh, how you will not be missed! What ever will I do the the insane mop collection that was started because of you??...Au Revoir, original-to-the-house blah beige laminate counter tops that went all the way up the wall! 再见, window ledge made out of the same laminate!
Hyvästi, walls that we messed up the texture on when we removed the wall paper within 5 minutes of inhabiting the house! While you were pretty bad, the burgundy flower wallpaper was way, way worse...

Paalam, paint colors that the renters chose! To my dear, sweet, long-lost blue: you are sadly missed....

Tot ziens, flat panel doors with the gold hardware! Your willingness to open up to us will never be forgotten! We hope you go to a good home...Hagoonea',"Miss Piggy Hollywood" lights, old faucets, shell sinks and huge mirrors! You were always there for us when needed you to shine some light on us and offer a bit of reflection...I cannot wait to see how it turns out, but until then- here is a peek at whats to come: