brain dumping + nothing too exciting going on = this blog post

 1. this is how my house looked for a few days early december. big house + not enough decorations = christmas decorating block.

 2. kids + funny faces while decorating the christmas tree = a post on my blog!

3. pretty ornaments + lights = beautiful tree.

4. last christmas + texas = kinda regretting the decision to move.

5. indiana + family = happy kaylee and mike.

6. mean girl + telling the class that kaylee's a spoiled, selfish little girl = something mean girl's mom is probably telling her at home.

7. mean girl +  mean girls mom = us talking to the principal to get kaylee moved out of her current class = no more drama! (she will be moved after winter break)

8. birthday + kaylee = double digits. which has been hard for this mama to take.

9. birthday + ham = even harder for this mama to take. (his is in january)

10. both kids + annoying their mom about opening an early christmas gift =  jimmy kimmel horrible gift prank on the kids.  will post video.

waiting for the happy mail trucks

this year i didn't want to fight any houston traffic/crowds and i also wanted to support small business's  so i took advantage of a few cyber monday sales. a win win in my book.

on Facebook,  instagram and email 1canoe2 stated they would have an hour where they will put everything 50% off. i made sure i was home for that announcement and had everything ready in my cart.

i got ham these 2 prints for his empty apartment. hopefully he will like them.

 he can't hang anything on his walls with nails so for the time being we will find a way to hang them till he gets a permanent residence. then we will frame them up.

i got this download from lindsay letters.  one of my brother's and his family are building a new house and i wanted to get something pretty and inspirational for my three niece's rooms.

 i also got them stain glass stars from kurt knudsen. (no sales from kurt)

these are for me since i'm lacking in the holiday decorating department. i'm going to leave them up year round though.

more of the prints i got for my niece's and kaylee.

i also ordered some aggie gear for ham and my nephew's from a local business but i got bad news that they had to refund me so i'm waiting to see who i still need to buy for.

catching up with pictures

 went to san antonio for a few days over thanksgiving and it was awesome!

 we stayed at the elian resort and spa. this is the back of it and its such a cool place. if i could, i would move here. (san antonio is beautiful with its hills and all the trees!) its a mix of resort and apartment complexes. it also had a restaurant, bar and business's.  see the black and white awning? perfect spot for me to open a home decor/photography business.

 we got to meet ricky williams. he played for the longhorns and the dolphins and he was in town.

made mike's day! (he got the jersey he's wearing signed.)

 while in san antonio, the dad's and kids went to six flags and sea world. while us mom's shopped and just chilled at the resort. again, it was awesome!  we ate thanksgiving dinner at a little place called mimi's cafe. their turkey was very moist and the food was delish but ham and i both think homemade is better.

 making taco's in my new shoes. 

 decorating the christmas tree with funny faces. oh boy- kids are funny!

 went and painted christmas presents for my parents.  reindeers are grandkids.

 my neighbor's house. he does this all by himself every year. 

 friday lunch date 's at her school.

best friend coming over to decorate gingerbread houses.

parent testing

last thursday when the weather was warm 

(whole outfit via target)

1.  see those awesome boots she's wearing, i got 'em for under $6 bucks.  they were on clearance with another 5% off for using my target debit card.

2. we had one of those nights where we got tested as parents and me wondering where did i go wrong?

3. i tell her daily to be kind and to be the kind of friend you want to have. (just because someone else is mean doesn't mean you have to be)

4. long story short, kaylee texted something mean to the frenemy while pretending to be another friend.

5. not sure how that can be done but she is now grounded from going to or having friends come over for awhile and no more texting till the end of year.

6. while the text wasn't nice, it wasn't horrible but what got us was that she fought us the whole time and wouldn't give us her passcode to see what was going on. a lot of wasted anger and time could of been avoided.

7. i tell her daily to be kind and to be the kind of friend you want to have. (just because someone else is mean doesn't mean you have to be)

8. on to other things. had a good weekend. went to lonny's house to see lsu (his team) get beat. aggies ended up losing too. he fixed rabbit with rice. i didn't try it. last week, i heard he made squirrel gumbo. i didn't try that either.

9. sunday we had lunch with urbano so us wives and daughters could get to know each other before our few days together next week in san antonio.

10. tuesday mike beat me by 12 seconds at bootcamp. if there's no running involved, i can usually beat him. (we did some rowing since its been so cold outside)

this and that

1. my close-up selfie after my hair appointment on wednesday. kinda bummed that it isn't the way i wanted it even though i had asked for a CUT and color, she was double booked.

2. i changed my profile pic on fb (wish there was a way to do that without having to announce it to the world) to this one and my funny brother asked if i had short dinosaur arms.

3. then said if i needed help with taking selfies to ask his wife which was funny because over the weekend, i nicknamed her aunt selfie. (she posts at least 1 if not more a day)

4. i'm dog sitting ollie's girlfriend for a week. hope she doesn't poop or barf all over the house. and i wish there was a way to train her to sleep in a little longer.

5. her parents are going to indiana for his work. this will be their deciding factor if they really want to move back or not because its cold and snowing!

6. wednesday night we met up with lonny and his family for some pizza and trivia at mellow mushroom.  pizza is still good and we still suck at trivia but its all for fun.

7. i made it to target twice this week. who am i kidding, i usually make it to target twice every week. (i've got 2 of them 10-15 minutes away in each direction)

8. because i save myself 5% off my total purchases by using the target DEBIT card.  if its stuff i'm buying why not?  tuesday i forgot to check out cartwheel but thursday i didn't and saved myself over $50 bucks! (flannel sheets, board games for christmas gifts etc...)

9. i decided i'm going to get a quote and see how much it will be for someone to come and paint the rest of the house. i've got benjamin moore revere pewter left over.

10. so the master bedroom, master bath, spare bedroom and laundry room will be the same as the rest of the house. they will also need to finish painting most the trim and doors. oh and cabinets in the bathrooms. YIKES! thats a lot of painting!

it's so cold in texas today- high of 55 (has nothing to do with my post)

 1. ummm, not liking this photo booth pic that she did. pull up that sleeve girl!

2. this is more like it and this is what she gets for taking pics like these- ha!

3. we got new furniture from our favorite furniture store.  the owner even knows us by name and gives us awesome discounts! (new tv stand and 2 end tables for the family room and a coffee table for mike's area)

4. we want to get the cool stuff before the move. yes, a garage sale is in the works for spring.

5. we headed up to visit ham on saturday. on the way there we had to make a pit stop at the worlds cleanest bathroom, biggest gift shop gas station- buc'ees! (its tradition)

6. seriously, they are the cleanest i've ever seen and i'm super picky about them and their gift shop is die for!

7. once we got to ham's we took him out for a late lunch at bj's brewhouse. then dropped the boys off at bar so they could watch the aggies win while kaylee and i got ham some groceries. we even got him a plant.

8. i feel bad that his apartments so bare- no pictures or anything on his walls! (his next apartment will be better!)

9. sunday mike left for houma, louisana for training though i'm thinking it was excuse to hang out with the guys because he didn't go to bootcamp last night. (tired and probably hung over)

10. we made it official and told my parents we are moving back to indiana. to say they were happy is an understatement! 

keeping busy, planning and more decisions

 1. i was standing by the counter one day and found ollie staring at me. he does that from time to time and it kinda freaks me out.

2. i've been doing some swaps on instagram. this is my latest one that i sent. it was from your hometown theme. so much fun but so expensive once you add shipping. (that long thing in bubble wrap is a texas shot glass, of course.)

3. for either kaylee's birthday or for christmas, i signed her up for subscription box (poshpak). she loves getting mail and she's always trying to scam my goodies.

4. instead of heading up to indiana for thanksgiving, we're thinking about taking a few days and head up to san antonio with one of mike's co-workers/running buddy+ family.

5. we want to make use of our sea world season pass and hit six flags even though mike's the only one who rides roller coasters.

6. it would of been too busy of a trip to head up to indiana for the week especially since we were wanting to drive.

7. plus, it doesn't make sense to look at houses when they could be sold by the time we put our house on the market. though the houses around here sell a lot faster than back in indiana.

8. ham texted me yesterday that be got admitted into A+M too!

9. he's been doing a semester at a community college up in college station since he's changing his major to commercial architecture???  engineering was too hard and you must be a genius if you are one ; )

10. so now he has a big decision to make. stay at A+M or transfer to purdue.  

halloween + my kids

a nerd, a witch, a cat and a wizard

1. after tennis practice on friday, kaylee and the girls got ready for halloween.

2. i made kaylee's favorite sloppy joes, cheesy hash browns and fruit salad.  ashley and family brought an apple pie.

3. our other neighbors brought over some brownies with marshmallow ghost and frankensteins on them.

4. i also went and bought a 3 gal tub of chicago style popcorn on a whim. (i divided it into halloween bags and gave them to whoever we know!)

5. i wanted to stay and pass out candy this year but the other mom's were walking so i had to go leaving mike and ashley's dad behind.

6. after trick or treating, our neighbor's invited us in for some birthday ice cream cake. we ended up staying till 1:30 AM- i know! such party animals! (mike went home around 10:00)

7.  rest of the weekend was spent relaxing. i ended up crying for about an hour on sunday morning. just had a bad week and needed to get it all out.

8. while i still feel sad, my kids make me happy. (and today is a new day!)

9. later in the day ham said something funny (he doesn't know about my melt down) and kaylee is just a farting machine.

10. sunday's we let kaylee sleep in our room on our couch. as she was laying there she said she felt like she was in isolation even though the couch is about 2 feet away. funny little girl!

what she wore wednesday because she's cute

taken last friday 

(top: tjmaxx, tank: target, shorts: justice, shoes: target)

1. after school on monday, this sweet thing said she was homesick while in school. she just wanted to be home with me.

2. then she went on and said that she loves her life and she doesn't want to be anybody else. how awesome is that? 

3. back in my days, i wished i was someone else or had someone else's life. even to this day i don't feel loved unconditionally or wanted- by my parents.

4. this week has been one of those take a nap everyday kind of week. just been going to bed late and waking up early.

5. we started bootcamp again on monday. they have us do a workout called baseline on the first day for time. then we do it again on the second to last day so we can see if we improved. 

6. last nights workout was another good one. i rocked it on the box jumps and squats but running those short distances kicked my butt.

7. we're debating on heading back to indiana over thanksgiving break since kaylee has the whole week off to go and look at houses. hopefully the ones we like are still for sale.

8. also debating on kaylee's halloween costume. as of right now, she's going as a witch. i wanted something more creative like last years candy robber.

9. been secretly snacking on talenti gelato. southern butter pecan, fudge brownie and peanut butter cup have been my favorites.

10. i'm also secretly debating on purchasing this purse. or this one or this size.

house hunting and wasting time, its what i'm good at

alabama

1. this was taken in alabama for mike's work get away. miss kaylee had enough bike riding at this point.

2. once again, blogging has gotten away from me. its not that i've been busy, just lazy. (there's painting, cleaning and lots of de-cluttering to be done)

3. if i haven't mentioned it, mike got the job offer to go off shore. now we're just waiting to hear when he starts that new position. he's hoping after the holidays.

4. so instead of getting the house ready for moving, i've been looking for houses on-line even though we won't be moving till the school year is over.

5. and i really need to stop looking because the houses i end up liking end up selling even though its a slow market. (in the area we're looking at, houses we looked at over 5 years ago are still for sale!)

6. we found one that we really like. its only a year old and its got 3 acres for a really good price.

7. its not as grand as the one we live in now but how grand does it have to be for just kaylee and i?(mike and ham will only be there part-time.)

8. plus not having a $700+ electric bills will be awesome! (isn't that crazy?)

9. pooppoop (mike's dad) even offered to come and mow the lawn when mike's off shore.

10. and (ba)nanny has offered to come and pick kaylee up whenever she feels like spending time with them.

indiana is calling their people back

school picture day: 2 weeks ago

1. she's wearing the same outfit today but with a cute belt instead of the shirt.

2. we finally got the a-okay that mike can apply for the off shore position. he has an interview on monday. (he will be working for the same company but just a different position)

3. not sure how i feel about him being gone for 14 days them home, cramping my style, for 14 days but i'm trying to be positive about it.

4. and kaylee is sure excited about going to the same school as one of her cousins. (they're 6 months apart)

5. i still haven't told my family or friends yet. don't want to jinx it till we know for sure. 

6. talked to my neighbor this morning. they're also thinking about moving back to indiana too. they have kids and grandkids they want to see more often. (they just got back from a wedding and being with the grandkids did it for them)

7. we're all dreading those indiana winters though! (except for kaylee)

8. i got the new iPhone 6 and its awesome. i like the thinness of it and the bigger size is better for my aging eyes.

9. i really need to be cleaning- my mil is coming to town on monday but i think i'll wait till saturday or sunday.

10. but i am wanting to start cleaning the craft room.

heart pounding, waiting patiently...

that's ollie sleeping

1. so a lot has been on my mind lately and yet nothing has been going on.

2. i spent the last 3 days of last week babysitting window guys. they're coming back tomorrow to finish and clean up. (we got 15 back windows replaced. if we had the money, we would replace the other 53-56 windows this house has!)

3. so i had to miss lunch with kaylee on friday but she understood.

4. sunday ham went back to school bummed which made me bummed too. (kaylee was bummed that her brother was leaving and that she had school on monday)

5. and i still felt bummed on monday knowing that ham wasn't happy and i couldn't fix it.

6. so its been mentioned that he transfers to purdue. (he got an acceptance letter already and he found a place to live. all signs thats what he should do)

7. and we're waiting to hear if mike will be going off shore as his next job assignment. if he does, that means we will moving too.

8.  and since no one reads my blog, i can say it will be back to indiana.

9.  while this decision was a hard one for me (there's so much more to do here and the weather!), in the end family matter most.  i want kaylee to grow up with her cousins especially since she has 6 girl cousins all close to her age. i want her to know her grandparents and aunts and uncles.

10. so i'm here with my heart pounding, fingers and toes crossed, waiting patiently for mike to give me the news.

bad selfie and lazy blogger

1. i'm not very good at taking selfies.  i know i'm not facing the right way for a clear shot but i like the unclear ones of me the best. (taken after i had gotten my hair done that day)

2. boy have i been a bad, lazy blogger. too lazy to upload photos or to link back some of my favorite items.

3. i went crazy shopping today. headed to the woodlands and went to marshalls/homegoods.

4. got my self a top and a quilt for my bed. its so pretty!

5. then headed over to world market where they had this quilt on hold for me. its in kaylee's room and we're using the purple side.

6. then i went to pottery barn to see if they had any placemats and napkins in stock that i saw on joanna gaines instagram.  they did so i bought them plus linen colored napkins plus silver napkin rings.

7. now i'm debating if i want to do half printed/half linen napkins and place mats so its not so matchy match.

8. and since i was in the area, had to stop at the cheesecake factory to order a shrimp and bacon club sandwich with sweet potato fries to go.

9. and on my way out, i had to stop at kiehls because i had gotten a sample of their bb cream and loved it so a big tube had to be bought.

10. then i told myself i needed to get straight home and that tomorrow is cleaning day. 

wish my kids would stop growing up

1. i took this at the beginning of the school year. we decided to hit target after school and grab a snack at fivebucks aka starbucks.

2. while we were waiting for her vanilla bean frappucino with soy milk, chocolate drizzle and whip, i looked over at her and saw her as a teenager or heck, even as a grown woman.

3. and it made it me sad. i hope she will let me continue to go shopping with her when she's older. 

4. not much else going on. kaylee's still playing tennis, mike and i are still getting our butts kicked by bootcamp. 

5. i'm cleaning out my closet but hate the layout and deciding what to do with it.

6. last saturday, kaylee went to a slumber/birthday party so mike and i went to see the aggies play.

7. the new stadium that johnny built (thats what i call it) is awesome! just as nice as the minute maid baseball park and this is a college stadium!

8. mike and i got new aggie gear. the weather was perfect for some long sleeves.

9. i might have gotten 2 dipping dot ice cream in mini aggie helmets.

10. we didn't get home till 2AM because all the hotels were booked. we kept trying to call the hilton every hour for any cancelations and ham only has a studio apartment.

so last friday

from tennis camp: coach ro

1.  before school, mike texted me saying we should get kaylee out of school early and go and visit ham up in college station. (kaylee read the text before me) 

2. we couldn't go because she has tennis from 4:30-5:30 and this is only her 2nd lesson.

3. she was not happy when i dropped her off at school that morning but seemed fine when i went to eat lunch with her.

4. mike picked her up after school and she went straight to her room.  she was pouting that she had tennis and that she didn't want to go and that she doesn't like tennis.

5. mike took her to her lessons so he could watch her but next thing i know, he's back home and says she's laying down in the back of the car crying and she wouldn't get out.

6. so i had to be mean mom and told yell that her tiny butt was going to tennis even if that meant that i had to carry her! i stayed to watch just in case she decided to be a butt and not play. 

7. after practice, she was happy again and said it wasn't bad. an hour and half long tantrum all for nothing.

8. guess she ended up having a bad afternoon. her friends got her in trouble for talking and another friend said that they were invited to another friends house and she wasn't able to go because of tennis.

9. since she said she was sorry for throwing her fit, we did let her go to friday night live with her friend meredith that evening. (a church that has events for kids so they have something safe and fun to do)

10. coach ro calls her my because on the first day of camp he asked her what her name was and she said my name is kaylee. (i think its cute)

brain dumping thursday

1. this is kaylee's first day of school photo. i'm still too lazy and won't get my phone to load up ham's. he wouldn't let me post it on facebook.

2. mike said i should do it anyway but i'm friends with a few of ham's friends and they will tell him and then he won't send me any more photos of himself.  i still have at least 2 more years of school photos of him to be taken. (he's a junior but decided to change majors)

3. my grandpa jack was in my dreams last night. i miss that guy.

4. yesterday at boot camp we did time trials to see how much we've improved.  i'm happy to report that i kicked boot camp's ass and finished it. i came in 3rd in my group and my time was 6 minutes.

5. we had to run 400 m, do 40 squats, 30 sit-ups, 20- pushups and 10 burps.

6. we also had to see how many sit-ups, push-ups and squats we could do in 60 secs. i improved on everything.

7. we start a new session on monday. mike has decided to give it a try as well. just to change up his workouts.

8. ham texted me yesterday needing more money and how his car is not running right. i've dubbed him H.A.M = huge amounts (of) money! haha!

9. still dog sitting. i'm ready to be a one dog person again. 3 more days...3 more days....

10. okay, off to find something to make for dinner tonight.

currently

tennis camp 2014

1. being lazy and won't get my phone to load up 1st day of school photos.

2. dog sitting again. [only 5 more days, only 5 more days... seems to be the chant]

3. getting her involved in a sport and tennis is the sport of champions. today is her first lesson.

4. thinking about gymnastics too just because it would be cool to see her do some tumbling action.

5. went up to the woodlands saturday for labor day fireworks. we spent most of our time in line to get kaylee's face painted but it was okay because the music wasn't as good as last time.

6. the johnson's came over sunday with steaks and ribs, garlic bread and baked beans for a cookout. i made meatballs + weiners, hot pizza dip, fruit salad, chili cheese tator tot casserole, crockpot mac-n-cheese and kaylee made brownies for dessert.

7. we did absolutely nothing on monday except order chinese food for dinner.

8. ham didn't come home for the weekend. it was a big party weekend i'm sure at school.

9. freaked out last week because i saw TONS of gray hair so i got myself an appointment at a new place and they did a fantastic job!

10. mike is going to join me for bootcamp next week. a new class starts at 7pm monday, tuesday and thursdays.

since i've been gone [in photos]

 1. payed ham to sweep and steam mop the kitchen.

 2. made kaylee clean up her room. this is just from her closet.

3. mike surprised me with dinner and a this show. it was awesome! 

 4. this is what kaylee texted me when asked for mike's car keys. (thought ham was taking her for ice cream. i thought wrong.)

5. my sister and her girls came to visit for a few days.

6. i got bit by a few fire ants. think i'm slightly allergic. both of my wrists got all swollen and they were in lots of pain!

 7.  took the girls to the pottery's wheel to paint some ceramic pieces.

9. signed her up for tennis camp. it was only for 4 days.

10. ran The Color Run again this year.  it was HOT and SWEATY at 8AM!

boot camp and the weekend

1. i totally needed this reminder.

2. i'm blaming bootcamp and all the aches and pains is making me a grumpy cat.

3. monday bootcamp totally kicked my ass. i did want to see what i was capable of and went running in high speed. with the texas heat a blazin- i ended up not finishing the workout, got dehydrated and might have thrown up a little.

4. wednesdays and friday's class was much better but my poor "muscles"are not use to being abused like this.

5. friday, we took kaylee and a friend up to blue bell ice creamery for a tour.

6. i love that the company is old fashion. they close up shop by 4pm everyday and there's no working on the weekends so employees can spend time with their families. how awesome is that?

7. finally got my flower bed finished on thursday. went to plant garden and got more hostas and tall grass. also went to arbor gates for some lawn decorations. got a metal monkey, a cat marker for our beloved boo-ah and glass bowl bird bath.

8. we've been eating out way too much this week. fuzzy tacos, chipotle for ham, dominos pizza for the girls, jimmy johns because ham has a weird eating schedule, mellow mushroom for pizza and buffalo wild wings twice. once to meet up with friends. and i actually made a meal too!

9. ham's car got fixed and new tires are on order. [fingers crossed nothing else breaks down for awhile so we can recoup]

10. just need to remind myself that its better to have his car fixed then to break down someplace creepy. 

a new day

taken one morning last week

1. it was nice having our house back to normal yesterday. no more noise or trucks in the driveway that wasn't ours.

2. the paint choice turned out awesome. mike likes it a lot.

3. i was kinda down again yesterday.  just felt like we can't get a break with things breaking apart.

4. i could feel our main a/c blowing out hot air.  that would make all 3 of our a/c units having to be worked on this year and in a months time.

5. and ham's car isn't running right and a tiny rubber hose part fell off??? 

6. and i also feel like i'm failing in the fun mom department. i had things planned for the summer but we've done none of them.

7. and none of my weight is coming off.

8. and i still have no friends.

9. but today is a new day.

10. going to wait and see what the a/c unit does today before calling for help. our neighbor friend is getting that hose part for us and i joined a bunco/reading club, just waiting for approval. monday i start boot camp. so glad its a new day.

siding and my instagram is my only friend

 the old roof being taken off

 don't know how those guys can just stand up there- so scary!

 the mess and see our falling siding?

 the new roof -almost done

 old siding off and new siding on or as they call it hardi plank

the backside getting a make over

1. the siding guys fixed and repaired all parts that were falling apart in the front and back of the house. the major part was the back.

2. they're already here to start painting which means they are almost done!

3. i had a color picked out but the guy forgot to save it so they could color match it. [i had mixed 2 paint colors together.]

4. so we went with one that i thought was the color, ended up being the dark color i had originally wanted. guess its a sign.

5. its called texas leather and i found it on pinterest.

6. been a little homesick again. reading what everyones doing on Facebook does that. 

7. and having instagram be your only friend doesn't help much.

8. last friday we did go to a showcase of homes since i had 2 free tickets. [mike got lunch out of it so he was happy]

9. we liked 3 out of 12 homes and of course my favorites were the craftsman style and beach home.

10. hopefully we will be able to build one [craftsman style] by the water