I'm back! But for how long???

Well, it certainly has been awhile.  There's lots of reasons why my writing has come to a halt, and now that I'm out of the habit, who knows if I'll be able to pick it up again.

The biggest news I should share is that Michael has a new job!!!  He last worked for PWC on August 2 and he took a week off before beginning his new job.  We spent a few days of that week in College Station visiting family.  Now, Michael is the controller for a company called the Covenant Group in Fort Worth.  It's a good, Christian environment and he really likes what he does.  He gets to go to many Ranger games and he's going to the Cowboys game tonight.  Tough, huh?  The best part is that he won't have any more 100+ hour work weeks.  And, no, we're not moving.  (Can you tell I've been asked that question a lot?)  It takes him about 40 minutes to get to work, so it's not so bad.  Praise God for a good job and more family time!

Shamu and Splashtown

I finally got my pictures developed that were on our disposable and waterproof camera. The pictures of Shamu were not great. That makes me sad that I was so cautious with the real camera. Oh well. I'll know in the future just how high the water goes if we go again. All I know is that there was water on the floor where we were sitting and I wanted to be careful with my new camera.

If you remember, we decided to save some green and go to Splashtown on Saturday instead of swimming at Sea World. I think we made the right decision. The girls just wanted to be in the water. I stayed with Julia as she took a nap in the minivan that we rented for the trip. If we had gone to Sea World, I probably wouldn't have let Julia sleep. Sea World is just too big to try to find someone, even with cell phones. It turned out great for all.

Independence Day 2011

Nearly every 4th of July of my life has been spent with the families of friends my mom went to high school with. We cook out and swim all day. It is fun to have my girls do the same things I did while growing up.

Julia, Macie, Audrey, and Maddie

Julia and me with Annabelle and Melody. The girls are a couple of weeks apart.

Audrey swimming all by herself.

Julia really does like the water.

Sea World

After celebrating MaMaw's birthday Thursday night in San Antonio, we stayed to do Sea World. I had planned out our two days there: rides and shows on Friday and swimming on Saturday. We got to a slow start on Friday because we visited with family during breakfast for a long time. I let go of my type-A self and decided just to go with the flow. We did get to see 2 shows on Friday, Shamu (or as Audrey says, Shampoo) and the Sea Lion one. No pictures of Shamu because I had no idea if we'd get wet, so I used my water-proof camera and I haven't developed those pictures yet. Then on Saturday, we decided to save some cash and do Splash Town instead. We visited my brother, Brett, on Saturday night too.

We lucked out with 92 degree weather, but that was still very, very hot.

I think I got sun block on the lens on the picture above.

The girls watching Elmo and gang.

Sea World was a lot of fun! There may be a post soon about Sea World and Splash Town after those pictures are developed.

MaMaw's 80th Birthday

Last Thursday, we packed up and headed to San Antonio to celebrate Michael's grandmother's 80th birthday. MaMaw has a lot of children and grandchildren and most were able to travel to the party. Even cousins from Paris and Berlin came!

MaMaw is something else, one of a kind, special. When her Sunday school class learned of her party, they created a "Flat Jean" (like a Flat Stanley) and took pictures of her all over town. It was the funniest thing I've seen in a while. People were kissing her, she was popping out of bushes, and lots of other funny things. Perfect for her and her personality.

Happy 80th, MaMaw!

Some Flat Jean pictures. (She's in black)

Audrey

Cake. Her favorite color is purple. We were encouraged to wear purple and the decorations were purple too.

Julia

Averys, Halls, and us. Burrows were not able to come.

Us

MaMaw looking at the gift we got her.

Wedding Weekend!

A lot happened Friday and Saturday! One - Audrey jumped off a diving board! (video to come later this week) Two - Our incredible, simply incredible, friends, Mike and Ruth, moved to Houston. We are going to miss them A TON, but it is such a good move for them. Anyone want to fill the void that we now have for accountability and our go-to weekend couple? Miss them so much already! Three - Jake and Amanda were married!

Michael and I introduced two lovely people a few years ago and Saturday night, they joined their lives together forever. I'm so glad it worked out and I'm so truly thrilled for them! The wedding was beautiful and the reception was tons of fun. Most importantly, two Christian people joined forces for God.

Here are some pictures from Friday and Saturday. I stole a bunch from Facebook. (Karen Heflin's and Stephanie Edevane's....hope that's okay!)

Michael and I at Rehearsal Dinner.

Jake and Amanda meeting but not seeing before the wedding. Isn't that dress/she elegant!

Reception at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Stephanie's Picture

Dance floor.

Stephanie's Picture

Houston and Karen with Jake and Amanda. Houston also married us.

Both are beautiful couples.

Karen's Picture

Great fun! Ignore my poor posture/strange dancing.

Stephanie's Picture

When you get a bunch of ACUers together, you are bound to get a Sing Song face picture!

Sarah was a college roommate. Now she is a neighbor and an aquatic pilates partner.

Stephanie's Picture

Bride and Groom dancing.

Stephanie's Picture

More dancing. Notice Scott and Cindy's faces. :)

Stephanie's Picture

Fathers Day

Michael is absolutely the best daddy to my two girls. They love him to pieces! It was never more evident than when Michael was working long hours not too long ago. Fathers play such an important role in families and I'm so thankful to have Michael be the father in our small family. He is such a hard worker, but he drops it all to have fun, teach lessons, and play with the girls. God has blessed me so much with this special guy!

Just Some Catching Up

Lately, I've been using my internet time to find good dinner recipes instead of blogging. Michael has been able to come home in time for dinner some. It had been so long since I've cooked that I felt like a rookie. So I've been looking at a lot of recipes and so far I've had some good successes. Do you have any good go-to recipes you'd like to share?

We've also been spending his hard-earned money, but not really wanting to.

Our faucet broke and hot water was leaking in a good, steady stream. I dealt with the problem by turning off the hot water. Any time I needed it or ran the dishwasher, I would just turn it back on. It made a horrible noise and leaked at the faucet when the dishwasher was on. It really threw off my schedule because I couldn't just let the washer run at night like I typically do because hot water would run all night. I stayed up a few nights just waiting for the wash cycle to end. Michael finally got the time to look at it to see if he could fix the issue. He could not, so he just bought a new faucet. We ended up calling the plumber anyways. He bought a bronze faucet and I was all too happy to replace my brass cabinet hardware with bronze. I found a great deal online on those knobs and pulls.

Then the tv that my parents gave us died earlier this week. This was the only tv that can connect to our antenna and AppleTV. So Michael went out to buy a certain model that was rated well on Consumer Reports. The store didn't have it. Long story short, they offered a display for half off and he haggled them down even lower. So now we have a great tv for less than what we were going to pay originally.

I didn't help matters when I convinced Michael that I needed a nice mixer after I broke ours making his birthday cake. I felt I was going to do enough baking just for Julia's party to justify the purchase. I didn't know everything else around me was going to fall apart. At least I got the mixer for much less at Kohl's when it was on sale and I had 30% off coupon. Oh, I also bought a good straightener then too. Whoops.

So, yeah. We went over budget this month. Hopefully it will all even out soon!

Yesterday, I called up Audrey's school and cancelled for the rest of the year. That should help our finances. She has missed so much lately with her allergies. She also hasn't been wanting to go lately. She's been to school only once or twice since Spring Break. I just felt like we were wasting money for something she might go to and wasn't really enjoying. I am glad we put her in school because I know it has helped her and she's enrolled for next year. It's just not feeling right at this time.

On another note, I found out I was pregnant with Audrey on April 11, 2007. Julia was weaned from nursing on April 10, 2011. The entire time between those dates, I was either pregnant or breastfeeding. I have my body back for the first time in 4 years! I can take medicine if I want! Wahoo!

I'm hoping to go get bluebonnet picture today. Doesn't help that I heard on the news last night that some lady believes that there are rattlesnakes in the fields. Should I heed her warning?

Sorry that this was more of a journal entry than a blog entry today.

Great Weekend!

There were some wonderful people that spent time with either one or both of my daughters this weekend and allowed me to do things all by myself or with just one girl this weekend. I huge shout goes to the people below.

Poppy flying a kite with Audrey. Ma didn't get her picture taken.

Michael stepped up big time this weekend too. He allowed me to go to a Korean Karaoke Bar and to a wedding shower. Thanks, Babe!

Mimi came over so that I could get my hair cut!

Papa came over and offered to keep the girls, but it wasn't needed at the time.