To satisfy Beth!

So it's been a looong time since I last posted. My little sister, Beth, emailed me twice to let me know! LOL! I have been up to a lot in the past month or so. Trip to the beach, dog training (Baylor, not me!), both girls national bball tournaments, I can't think of more but I'm sure there is.


My friend Sara and I saw Friends with Benefits a couple of weeks ago. Cute movie and I just love Justin Timberlake.


















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Thunderstorms and lazy afternoons

I love thunderstorms. My little sister, however, is freakishly terrified of storms and tornadoes. This wonderfully quiet Saturday afternoon I'm enjoying the thunderstorms. I did not sleep well last night, or really it was this morning. I went to bed at 12:30am which is extremely late for me and I woke up at 5:00am and couldn't go back to sleep. I don't function well on 4.5 hours of sleep, so I'm glad I can have a lazy day. Girls are out of state for basketball, both having a blast. I finished painting Mad's room this morning and then had a pedicure. See my pretty toes!!! ;)


Now Baylor and I are getting ready to take a nap. I hope it keeps raining, it's very relaxing.


I plan to put Mad's room back together and then get on with my list of things to do, including cleaning my house. I'll update with pics later.

kb

Busy busy busy

We have a busy next couple of days. The girls have had basketball practice all week and Mad has also been going to football camp too. Mad has her 5th grade national basketball tournament this weekend in Cincinnati. I'm not going, so she is going with her friend B. They get to go to King's Island while they are there. They are going to have so much fun, but she has to get packed and ready to go tonight. J is headed to the University of Georgia with her school basketball team for a weekend of basketball with high schoolers. They went to Auburn last year and had a blast, so I know she will have fun this weekend. She has to pack and get ready tomorrow. I will have a weekend to myself. I'm already planning all the projects I want to do this weekend. 

• Paint Mad's room
• Add more mulch to the flower beds
• Clean out the coat closet
• Clean out the coffee table drawers
• Make another dog bed
• Finish a cork board project
• Watch at least one movie

The list goes on.  I am probably getting a bit overzealous, as I am supposed to still be recovering.  We'll see if I am able to get any of this done, at least the movie watching! :)


kb

Fun night at our house!

We are having a girls night on a school night.  Well, not really a school night because the girls are out of school, but I do have to work in the morning.  J and Mad are friends with B and Mad who are sisters.  B and Mad play basketball and run track with my J and Mad.  These two girls are the sweetest girls I know.  They don't fight, unlike my girls, and they all get along really well when together.  And B is one of the funniest kids I know.  

J and Mad

 B and Mad

J, Mad, B, and Mad

 

B cuddled up with Baylor:)

After several episodes of Pretty Little Liars, we are now finishing The Nine Lives of Chloe King.  I fell asleep in my favorite chair and woke up when Mad asked J if they could eat dinner.  It was 8PM and they were starving.  Oops!  I think I will head to bed at the end of this episode.  It has been a loooong day.

kb

Off the Chaney - my friend Whitney's blog

So I remembered today that my great friend Whitney started a blog not too long ago and I have forgotten to check it since her first post.  I just read through all of her posts and she is crazy funny.  She is one of the funniest people I know.  She should have her own show or something.  She has the greatest stories and craziest things happen to her.  Her blog is about food and cooking.  She really needs a blog about her life and her crazy family! Her blog address is offthechaney.wordpress.com.  


Here's a picture of Whitney today at work.  She was being silly and doesn't normally look so crazy!  She is really a cute girl (in a non-lesbian kind of way:)!!!

kb

New bathroom, curtains, and a dog bed

To wrap up my recent busyness, here are more pics.

This is the girls' bathroom, newly painted with new shower curtain, rug, and towels. It's the same color as my mom's bathroom. She has such great taste!



I had curtains on my front window, but they were too short. So I made my own (with my new sewing machine!).



And last, but not least, here is Baylor's new doggie bed. I decided I didn't want to buy a $70 dog bed, because that's how much the big ones are at Petsmart. I used an egg crate (the kind for your bed) and a $5 flat sheet. I think I need to add another egg crate and maybe make it a little longer for her, but she loves it. She is always lying on it.



Sweet puppy!

I can't wait to paint Madi's room and build a new fire pit in the backyard. The fire pit will have to wait a couple of months. My surgeon said I'm not allowed to move anything for 6-8 weeks. We'll see if I can wait that long. On the other hand, I do have child labor, hmmm. . . (;

kb

What else has been keeping us busy?

We have had the awesome opportunity to foster 2 English Mastiff rescue dogs.  We have named them Baylor (female) and Bishop (male).  They are both amazing dogs.  We have decided to adopt Baylor and Bishop will hopefully find a new home soon.  Having 2 big dogs in the house is a bit much!

Baylor

Bishop

Baylor (left) and Bishop (right)

It has been an adjustment adding dogs to our family, but we love it.  I am so glad I finally decided to get a family dog.  We could not have asked for a better dog than Baylor.

kb

More recent happenings

Continuing from my last post, below are pictures of my organized utensil drawer (dorky, I know!) and the garage.  Check out my model in the garage! :)

I really felt like I accomplished a lot by cleaning out my garage.  I took a load to the dump and several loads to Goodwill.  I love my clean garage.

Now for some yard pictures.  We planted flowers, mulched flowerbeds, sprayed weed killer (a lot of weed killer), and put down pea gravel.

 Front Porch

Back yard, side of deck 

Back deck

Pea gravel on the side of the house

J being Vanna White and showing the backyard!

And I can't forget our tomatoes and peppers.  I actually picked a tomato today.  I'm not so sure about these peppers.  I don't know what to do with them and I think they are overripe.  Oh well.

I think that is about it for organizing and yard work.  There will be more to come, but I will need to finish recovering from surgery first.

kb

It's been awhile!

Wow! It has been way too long since my last post.  I apologize to my 3 followers! ;)  Well I have a lot to update.  I have been very busy the past few weeks. It will take a couple of post to cover all my happenings. 

Currently I'm recovering from gallbladder surgery.  Let me tell you, it has not been fun.  I think I'm a woose because I don't handle surgery recovery very well.  This was definitely nothing like my tonsillectomy, but it is taking longer to recover than I expected. 

I told my surgeon that he ruined my bikini belly.  I made it through 2 pregnancies without a stretch mark on my belly (my back and hips are another story), but I have 4 scars from this gallbladder surgery. 

Oh well, that's life.  When we got home from outpatient surgery, I was swollen and Mad told me at least 5 times that I looked pregnant.  Yes, I know, thank you. 

Last week my mom came to the South to visit and take care of me after surgery.  I miss my mom so much.  It was so great to see her and get to spend time with her.  She took great care of us, spoiled my girls, and let me get lots of rest.  Thank you so much mom! I love you.

Prior to mom's arrival, I was a cleaning, organizing, yard working fool.  I got so much done over Memorial Day weekend.  I think I was so motivated for 3 reasons: 1) mom was coming, 2) I had a long weekend and would not be returning to work for a week (turns out it will be more like 2 weeks before returning to work, but who's counting), and 3) I had lots of time.  I forgot to take "before" pictures, but I will share some "after" pictures.  I think I will take pictures this weekend of other projects I need to do so that I will have before pictures!

This is my bedroom closet.  It may not look so great to you, but you should have seen it before.  The floor was covered with shoes, bills, and miscellaneous everything.  Now it's organized and I got rid of clothes, shoes, and a bunch of junk.

This is my linen closet.  It is very small and was crammed with odds and ends.  We had to be careful when opening the door as we never knew what would fall out.  Now it is organized and everything has a place.  I love it!


 

That's all for tonight.  I promise to tell more and show pictures, so be sure to check back.

kb

J's Book Report Project

Shoe box + play-doh = cool book report project


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Day 1 of 21

Today I'm starting 21 days of no processed food. I will be eating lean meat, fruit, veggies, and low-fat dairy. I need to break my addiction to sugar (especially after eating 8 pecan shortbread cookies). Wish me luck!


Here's my breakfast and snacks for the day. Thanks to my friend Jeanne for the Santa Cruz organic lemon juice, I drink tons of water.

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OCD Conversation

Mad: "Mom, do you have OCD?"
Me: "Hahaha, no way. Why do you ask?"
Mad turns to J and they both chuckle.
Mad: "You always make us clean up, vacuum, dust, and clean our rooms."
Me: "That's not OCD. If you want to see OCD, you should live with Granny! And I'm not your maid!!!"
J: "My friends don't have to."
Me: "Your friends have maids!"
hahaha, silly girls :)

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Pecan Shortbread Cookie Yumminess

I have been wanting to make these pecan shortbread cookies for the past 2-3 weeks. My friend, Melanie (who is an amazing cook and baker), made these and brought them to work and they were fabulous. So I'm finally getting around to making them. Mad helped, but really just sprayed flour everywhere when she turned on the Kitchen Aid! :) The cookie dough was so yummy, I wasn't sure there was going to be enough left to bake.


They turned out pretty and almost as yummy as Melanie's!

Runners-up

Not state champions, but the little girls did great. Mad had an exhausting weekend at the state tournament. She fouled out of a couple of games, trying to take 4 charges in one game, but apparently the refs didn't see it that way. Oh well, they still had a great time.


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Great weekend

I have had more fun in the last 2 days than I've had in the past 32 years! Friday night we had Karaoke Night at The House of Troy. I had never sang karaoke (mainly because I can't sing) and it was a blast.


Here's a pic of the girls from Karaoke Night.


Sara and I belting it out to Footloose.


These are the amazing desserts we had.

Saturday morning I was busy running errands, creating my meal plan for the week, doing laundry, and I got a good walk in. I was quite productive. Then I had a hair appointment with Tina at her new salon. I was so excited to see her and to get my hair highlighted and cut. Then I met my great friend Sara (who also got her hair done today) for dinner and a movie.



We saw Bridesmaids and oh my, it was the funniest movie ever. We laughed from beginning to end.

My First Post!!!

Here goes it!  I have been following a few blogs for the past several months and I have decided to give it a try. I don't post much on Facebook because I'm not sure I want everyone and their dog to know what's going on in my life. I would like to share our daily/weekly happenings with my family and friends, especially those far away. Maybe this will help me take more pictures and actually share the pics with my parents!

Here's a recent picture of me and my girls on Mother's Day. It was great, I had breakfast in bed, I planted flowers and ate at Macaroni Grille. Exactly what I wanted for Mother's Day!