Making Progress

Well, we really made lots of progress this week! We are working on our Frisco living room. We decided to go ahead and do the surround sound thing so we had a LOT of prep work to do. First of all, we needed furniture. Done. Then, we needed to choose our color scheme (paint & fabrics). Done. Get the walls painted. DONE. We did it ourselves. I love the way it turned out! OK, so it's not perfect but it works and it saved us a ton of money (and you'll soon see why that is so important.)

Let's think about this: We need MUSIC so...We bought an iPod. Yes, thank you, we've joined the rest of the world and are slowly becoming fluent in iTune. I downloaded nearly 300 cds totaling close to 2700 songs which is 9.5 DAYS of continuous music. We still have 70 of the 80 Gbs available. Good Grief. We need a TV so...We bought a 52" LCD which is now mounted on the wall above the fireplace. We need movies so...We bought a BluRay thing. Whatever. The satellite is hooked up, the speakers are in and my butt vibrates when the Black Pearl shoots her canons. A true HD experience.

OH! And we needed a place to put all this stuff so we built an entertainment center. This is what we started with:
Built it into this:and ended up with this:So this is our new living room:
I also got my scrap room organized:
A word to the wise: Do NOT let your husband watch HGTV or DIY. You will forever be up to your ears in projects. Good thing I can swing a hammer!

Happy Mother's Day

Hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day. We had dinner at my parent's house and the in-laws joined us. It was really nice to not have to split our time. Thanx to my sister, I even cooked a brisket. It was actually good!

I'm working on a new project called 28 Days. This is day 6 and so far all I've accomplished is creating a spreadsheet to keep up with the photo assignments and a folder to store the daily downloads. Maybe this week I can get caught up. Right.

We got a new iPod as part of our Home Theatre System so I'm learning how to load all our CDs. Kenneth said we're finally growing up. Whatever. We're gonna have to get Michael or Ryan to show us how to adjust the volume. Yeah...we've arrived.

May WHAT???

Where does the time go? I think I live in a time warp. Every time I look up, it's another day, week, month! Good Grief! How did I get this old? I had a facial yesterday and was politely informed that "Oil of Olay isn't gonna cut it anymore". I have to admit that after the glycolic peel (oooh, tingly) and deep pore cleansing (OW...you can stop now) my skin did look better but who has time for all of that? I have projects to finish and pages to create and albums to make. So, I'm obsessed. Who cares? The Arlington Scrapbooking Convention is in June and I'm going this year! Anyone care to join me?

Anyway, here is what's happening this week:
We're in Houston until Friday because Kenneth has BIG meetings with THE BOARD. We had dinner with friends Monday so he's only home one night this week. And, his old boss has invited him to some "grand poo bah" event so he had to rent a tux. I was NOT invited. How RUDE. If the other spouses show up I'm gonna be really ticked. I'm trying not to be offended but..TOO LATE. Oh well, my dress wouldn't fit anyway since I've lost 35 pounds! But still. He looks REALLY good and if any chick hits on him, I'm never letting him out of my sight again. Not in a tux anyway. "Not invited"...humph!

So I get to spend the whole week alone and scrapping. Yea! I need to finish my mom's gift. I start a 28 Day workshop tomorrow. And I need to re-focus on our Key West Album. FUN FUN FUN.

It's Wednesday and I'm lonely. Anybody wanna come over and play?

A Party for Gertie

Today, we celebrated Gertie. I guess it was an early Mother's Day Celebration. She's like 87 or 88 and we are delighted and blessed to still have her with us. She was so surprised. She just cried and cried. We had tons of yummy food. I ate cookies and chips and sandwiches and fruit and I'm sure I've gained all my 35 pounds back. I made cookies because my neices call me the cookie queen. I always bring LOTS of cookies. I took sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, turtles, chocolate chip and oatmeal. I think there were 20 dozen in all. We did NOT bring home the left-overs!

We had lots of fun visiting with everyone. One of the cousins brought a DVD of some old home movies and it was so cool to see Dallas and other places as they were in the 50's. I loved seeing everyone when they were so VERY young! It was also very moving to see in action those who most of us were never blessed to know. These are pix of Sharon who was my F-in-L's little sister.Seeing her playing and jumping rope was a shocker to us all. Most of us have never seen more than the one photo of her hanging on Gertie's wall. I think we all lost it.

We have a great family and I am blessed to have them all to love!Great job, Marlene & David and everyone who helped to celebrate our Gertie!

Much Needed Weekend with Family

We had a GREAT time this weekend visiting with Kenneth's brother and his family. My sister-in-law is a doll. I don't know how she does all she does and still manages to have such a loving heart and energy to care about others needs. Sister, you are AMAZING! I am so blessed to have you and I miss being with you more than you know. I had a great time hanging out with the girls, shopping and scrapping and I loved the movie -- "Nim's Island". Cute, feel good film...go see it and laugh out loud.

Kenneth enjoyed being with his bro' and the guys. He misses you, too, Bud. We have got to find ways to get together more. I hope the Colorado thing works out.

I can't believe how the girls are growing up. They are such sweet, caring and gracious young ladies and, OH, MY GOODNESS, how beautiful...just like their Mom. I am so proud of them all!

It was a good family time and I wish it could have lasted much longer. I loved the animals sleeping with me, too. How can you say "no" to Brownie when she looks up at you with those big eyes?

On another note, Michael was inducted into the National Honor Society last night. We flew up to Dallas for the ceremony and flew back this morning. It was well worth the trip. We are so proud of him. Incredible athlete, good looking and smart too. WTG, Bud!

Looking forward to getting some things done in Frisco this week. We bought living room furniture so now we need to choose accent fabrics and pick paint colors. Woo hoo. At least I might get to spend some time with my mom.

Have a good weekend and I'll let you know how the decorating safari went.

Before & After

It's tough getting old. We both need reading glasses. We sleep with 6 (six) pillows. We take blood pressure medicine and various supplements. (Does Advil count as a supplement?) We have strange things like gout and heel spurs and lipomas and thyroid issues. We both need to lose weight and get more exercise.

So we ARE. Losing weight, that is. Does lifting and moving heavy boxes and furniture count as exercise? If so, we're doing alot of that, too.

Check it out! We've both lost 30 pounds!

This was taken at Kristin & Dusty's Wedding, 1/26/08

The photo on my profile was taken in Vegas 4/1/08

Pretty cool, huh?

I still have a long way to go but the Dr. is happy with the results and I'm still losing!

Happy 40th Birthday Sister. We love you!

Catching Up

OK, so, after three years of living and working Houston, and coming back to Dallas on the weekends, Kenneth's company has decided to open a facility in Lewisville. Since he is the facilities guy, he needs to be in both places. So, we closed on a house last week and we are in Houston Mondays and Tuesdays and we drive up on Wednesdays and we're in Frisco Thursdays and Fridays and most weekends then we drive back to Houston on Sunday evenings. Breathe.

It's gonna be great being closer to the kids and parents more. I'm looking forward to cooking the occasional dinner for my family again. I also hope to get to know Michael's friends better. I want to be more active as a "True Blue Mom" and spend time with the football guys. Ryan can come visit between his FIVE jobs and his girlfriend, Kirby, promises to visit often. Kristin and Dusty are newly weds so who knows how often we'll see them but hopefully they'll stop by at least once a week. Breathe.

We just got back from Las Vegas. Kenneth had a conference Monday-Thursday then Ryan and Kirby flew in Friday for their Official 21st Birthday Vegas Trip. Twenty-one?!?!?! Breathe.

We stayed at Paris (Beautiful place!) and walked our feet off up and down The Strip. Ate some good food, played some cards, pulled some slots, rolled some dice, and saw Blue Man Group. We left Sunday. Kenneth & I flew back to Houston, worked Monday then flew back to Dallas Monday night. We had a great time but we are EXHAUSTED!!!!!! Breathe.

So, here we are. This is our new house:

It's a cute place and it's very comfortable but we still have a LOT of settling in to do. Breathe.

So, you know the latest. I'll try to keep up to date with my blogging. No Promises.