A Decade...

I remember when I turned ten years old.  I thought it was so cool that I was a whole decade old...one-tenth of a century.  10 years is a lot.  It's a milestone measurement of time.  So much happens in the span of a decade.  If you think about every 10 year chunk of your life and really think about how much you changed...how much change you witnessed, it's pretty amazing.

Well, today I am celebrating a specific decade of my life.  The decade from June 15, 2002 to June 15, 2012.  Yes, that's right.  10 years ago today, I married my best friend.  I've already blogged about my wedding day here, so I won't do that again.  But I would like to share some thoughts on these last 10 years.

This last decade of our lives has seen us through many things, both good and bad.  We have gone from being apartment renters to being homeowners.  We have gone from being "just the two of us" to being the parents of 2 amazing kids.  We have had jobs, lost jobs, and changed jobs.  We've played games and listened to lots of great music.  We've seen each other through (and continue to help each other through) leukemia and diabetes.  We've mourned the losses of family and friends.  We've been to Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee, Oklahoma, New Mexico, South Dakota, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio (exotic?  no...but fun memories?  yes!).  We've enjoyed watching and mourned the losses of some amazing TV shows.  :)  And most importantly, we have loved each other and laughed at with each other every single day.

While doing this blog I discovered that Kevin and I have not had nearly enough pictures taken together over the last 10 year.  But I did manage to find 2 that are 10 years apart (December of '99 - December of '09)...not the decade of our marriage, but a decade nonetheless.  And I know the quality of the first picture isn't that great, but I dare say that we have gotten even better looking!

Now, I'd like to share a birthday card that my parents gave Kevin.  I think it's probably truer than they even know:

"Before you married you-know-who, her life was fairly sweet.
But something wasn't right somehow.  The gal was incomplete!

Then one day you came along and everything soon changed.
She looked so extra happy, people thought she was deranged!

At last she'd found her soul mate and she truly was elated.
The floating hearts above her head were ones that you created!

Once you tied the knot, it got much easier to see,
that you were what was missing from her family's family tree!

Your wife thinks you're really awesome, and the rest of us do, too.
It's plain to see, we all agree...there's no one quite like you!"

(Now, that last part may have been a bit of a back-handed compliment...but I'd agree.  There's just no one like my Cakes, and I'm so lucky to have been able to share this last decade with him.  Here's to many more.  Happy Anniversary, Cakes!)

Silver Linings...

I've always considered myself to be a pretty optimistic person.  I try to find the good in situations...all those silver linings.  That being said, it sure is easy to find things to gripe about.  And although I'm pretty positive, I find myself griping a bit too often.  I came across that poem, and it inspired me to be thankful for dirty dishes...and to find the silver linings in all of the other things that are usually so easy to gripe about.

**I'm thankful for my messy house.  Because although it never seems to stay clean, at least I have a safe haven for my family to live, laugh, play, and sleep in.  And even though it doesn't have a pool, a privacy fence, a game room, a side entry garage, or a guest room it has memories of holidays, birthdays, babies, and more!

**I'm thankful for wanting to pull my hair out.  My kids can drive me crazy and frustrate me like no one else on earth!  But they are such a blessing to me.  They provide so much joy and laughter to my life, and when I think about those couples who can't have kids, it makes me appreciate them that much more.

**I'm thankful for piles and piles of laundry.  Folding laundry is one of my least favorite chores.  It's just never ending!  But thankfully, the fact that it seems never ending means that my family not only has the clothes they "need" to be cool in the summer and warm in the winter.  But they also have the clothes that they "want" to play sports and fit in with their peers.

**I'm thankful for being exhausted and stressed out.  Inherent with being a teacher is 50+ hour work weeks, still having to bring work home, and the stress that comes with the classroom management of 20+ kids and their parents.  But this fatigue and stress is just a byproduct of a stable job with benefits that has helped to provide for my family...and has given me some wonderful friends, too.

**I'm thankful for having to roll my eyes and shake my head.  Any of you who know my husband know what I'm talking about.  :)  But as often as my eyes might roll, I'm smiling and laughing that much more.  I'm confident in knowing that I have someone to come home to who:  loves me, listens to me, thinks I'm funny, and thinks I'm pretty.

Now it's your turn to find those silver linings and be thankful for all of your gripes!



Birthday Blog...

Today is my 31st birthday.  Nothing too special about that (aside from me, of course).  31 is like turning 22.  21 was exciting.  It was a landmark age...an age that most of us look forward to (and for me, it marked 8 days until my wedding).  But 22 was really just another day (and for me, it was just 2 days before my daughter turned 1 month old).  Last year I turned 30.  I was not in a tizzy over it, but it was still a landmark thing.  I wrote one of my favorite blog posts (letters to myself) that day.  This year...not so much.  It's just another day (but for me, it marks 8 days until my 10 year anniversary).

All that being said, I figure why not have some birthday blogging fun?!  Below are some of my favorite birthday themed songs, skits, movie clips, etc. 

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rdVWEj1OQ8

http://www.hulu.com/watch/19280

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynmLdLwlgLI

Mothers' Day Wisdom...

The following list was an insert in the Mothers' Day card my mom gave me today.  I thought it was pretty great.  My favorites are numbers 1, 4, 9, and 10.


1)  The happiest families are those in which the children are properly spaced...about 10 feet apart.

2)  Raising a teenager is like nailing Jell-O to the wall

3)  The phrase "working mother" is redundant.

4)  Cleaning up with children around is like shoveling during a blizzard.

5)  All of us have moments in our lives that test our courage.  Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them.

6)  Housework:  If the item doesn't multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be.  No one else cares.  Why should you?

7)  It is amazing how quickly the kids learn to operate the DVD player, yet are unable to understand the vacuum cleaner. (Or the dishwasher, the lawn mower, the washing machine...)

8)  Motherhood is a process.  Learn to love the process.

9)  A boy's best friend is his mother.

10)  Motherhood:  When doing it all feels like nothing is ever getting done.

11)  The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.  She never existed before.  A mother is something absolutely new.

12)  Take care of yourself.  If Mommy isn't happy, nobody's happy.


Just a simple post at the end of a wonderful Mothers' Day that I was able to spend with my wonderful family.      :)

Hey, Girl...

Ok, so I've seen a handful of these "Hey, Girl" things online before. The best of which, by far, are the Ryan Gosling ones. And of those, this is by far the best one. In fact, it may be one of the greatest things I've ever seen. Ever. Period. Of course, maybe I'm a little biased because he's talking directly to me this time. :)
So here you go. I'll let Ryan speak for himself:

So there you have it.  Wonderful words from "the most handsome man ever", and Kevin's best friend.  

Sports...

Ahhh, sports.  I've never been what you would describe as sporty.  Or particularly athletic, either.

I was not in sports as a kid.  I tried Gymnastics in Kindergarten.  I don't really remember much about it aside from quitting, because the other girls were mean to me (at least that's how I remember it).  But seeing as how I now know that I inherited my mother's grace, I might have just been terrible at it.  I played volleyball in middle school and really liked it...and was half-way decent at it (I remember one game where I scored 13 of the 15 points it took to win the game).  In fact, I wanted to play in High School, too.  That is, until I learned that in High School you had to wear biker shorts as part of the uniform.  And there aint no way my thunder thighs were going to be seen in those.  But I did do 4 years of marching band.  And I know, I know...it's not the same thing.  BUT that was the best shape I had/have ever been in.

All that to say...despite my own shortcomings, I've always been a fan.  I always kind of liked going to Josh's baseball games (in fact, I really liked it when I was in high school and could flirt with the older brothers).  As soon as Brad entered High School, we started going to Cooper football games, and I fell in love with the game.  I was one of the few band members who would actually watch the games we were at (yes, Mom, I could flirt and watch the game at the same time).  And apparently, (I have no recollection of this, but according to my fourth grade journal which I just found and gave to Hannah), I even liked basketball at one point.

But now, in addition to loving the Cowboys (even when they suck...which is more often than I'd like), the Longhorns, and the Rangers, I also get to start loving my kids' teams.  We are lucky to have found sports that our kids like and are actually pretty good at. 

• Mason's favorite (and mine) is football.  We got to watch his team win the championship and watch him play on the All Star team last fall.  He's getting geared up to play tackle this year...then we'll really get to see what he's made of.  Since there's no football in the spring, we've got him in baseball (coach pitch) now.  At first he wasn't thrilled, but once he started doing well he was a lot happier about it.  And somehow Kevin and I got roped into being the coaches for this Bad News Bears team.  It's not as bad as I thought it would be.  I actually don't dread it (at least not all the time).  :)  We learned quickly that Kevin should not be pitcher, and I needed to have the players' positions planned out for every inning in advance.  It's been much better since we figured all that out.
• Hannah found softball last fall and really blossomed.  She joined a team that had already been together for a season and caught up really quickly.  A couple of parents told me today how impressed they are with her...that if you didn't know it, you would never guess that this is only her 2nd season to play.  We got to watch her team win their championship last season, too!  This season they are playing kid-pitch in the 10 U league, which is harder...but she's playing catcher and kind of rocking it!  I put a little sample of her handy work up on facebook, so check it out.

Even though it causes life to be crazy hectic for a few months, these sports have really added a lot of fun to the last year.  Is it too early to start hoping for some scholarships?!?

Backwards...

One of my friends posted the following picture on facebook this morning.  Personally, I think it's brilliant.  It's right up there with Movie Mash-ups...super clever and a lot of fun.  Check it out:

I think the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory one is my favorite....although the last one is pretty hilarious. 

Anyway, I thought I'd give it a try and see if I can come up with some of my own.  I'd love for you to feel inspired to do the same.  Here goes nothing:

~ If you watch The Curious Life of Benjamin Button backwards, it's about a kid who grows old and dies while the rest of the people in his life get younger.

~ If you watch The Day After Tomorrow backwards, it's about the world being saved by an incredibly strong and fast acting heat wave.

~ If you watch Independence Day backwards, it's about getting aliens to help us repair our demolished cities with their laser-explosion-retractor ships.

~ If you watch Armageddon backwards, it's about a bunch of astronauts working to put a giant asteroid back together.  When they return home, they decide to turn in their space suits in order to work on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean.

~ If you watch The Little Mermaid backwards, it's about a woman who leaves her newlywed husband in order to save an octopus.  She then decides to give up her legs and spend the rest of her life as a mermaid.  But she is so haunted by her former human life that she collects human trinkets and tries to drown the man she once loved.

~ If you watch Pretty Woman backwards, it's about a man who turns the woman he loves into a prostitute.

~ If you watch Snow White backwards, it's a about a prince who kills his princess with a kiss.  She gets carried off to a cabin in the woods where she is brought back to life by an old lady's magic apple.  She then lives with the dwarf men than rescued her.

~ If you watch Spiderman backwards, it's about a superhero who loses his powers when he gets bitten by a spider.


There.  That's a start.  Now, it's your turn...ready, set, go!