A New School Year

And so it begins....another school year.  Summer vacation has come to an end and early mornings are here to stay for the next 9 months. 

Christopher was up and out the door by 6:00 a.m. so he could make cross country practice before school.  I feel very confident that he would have given me the finger if I had asked for a picture at that time of the morning.  ha!  Seriously, my son has NEVER reacted that way to his momma.  He would have just walked away and not looked back.  Just like his momma, he is not a morning person.  

Timehop provided a picture of my boy for me though.  Look at that sweet face....

Bella however, woke up excited about the first day of school.  She was up, dressed and ready to walk out the door long before momma was ready.  

I was so proud of my little nugget.  I walked her into the school and quickly noticed all of the parents were dropping off and leaving (sniff, sniff). I tell Bella that mommy has to go and she says "ok". There was no crying, no clinging, no "I want you to stay with me", nothing.  "Ok" she says, and gives me a hug, kiss and a big ole smile.  I turn to leave and find myself welling up with tears.  She was the brave one yesterday.  Not mommy.

Happy First Week of School!

A Taste of 1964

Saturday afternoon I cleaned out my closet, pulled out some clothes that have seen their better days and the ones that don't care for my size anymore.  Traders! 

A while back, I received my mom's wedding dress from her sisters.  There isn't much left of it since it was discovered in the attic of their parent's house but its still her dress and for now I'm holding onto it as I may have something made out of it at a later date.  It has been in a bag in my closet so as I was cleaning it out, I decided I would put it in my hope chest with her veil which is still in very good condition.  Take a look...

I sent this picture to my sister who asked if I was playing dress up.  My reply was of course because we always try things on when we are cleaning stuff out and organizing.  She agreed.   If I could have put her dress on, I totally would have done that as well. Ha!  

Here is my beautiful momma in her gorgeous dress and veil in 1964...

 

A black & white of me just because...

The older I get, the more I hear that I look just like my momma.  

A beautiful compliment indeed.

Wine & Wood

Remember back in February when I attended my first painting party?  Well, last Friday I went to my first wood painting party hosted by my same friend, Amye Jo.  This was so much fun.  We had a larger group of ladies this time but it made for an even better time.

This process took a little longer than the other party, partially because we had more people but too, there are several steps to this project as well.  And again, we had an excellent teacher!

Painting and staining our boards...

Getting our stencil ready...peeling all the letters out

Once you peel out all your letters, etc., you center it, 

stick it on your board and smooth out

Then you get a partner to help you peel the backing off...

Next, you begin dabbing your colors on. 

First you put a seal on with your "base" color

Then you add the color for your wording...

You layer this color twice.  

By the time you get to the third round, you're tired of dabbing.  

Dabbing becomes your worst enemy. Ha!

After this you rip off the stencil.  This was funny because all of us forgot that we had just dabbed our wording onto the board with paint, so we were all thinking that if we ripped the stencil, we would rip our words off.  Crazy girls.  You then take your handy dandy tool to pick out the pieces that are still stuck on your board as well as the insides of your letters.  Again, this is where everyone helped out those of us who had larger quotes.  

And our finished products!!!

I have a few extra paint spots but I have learned to like them.  They are in spots I didn't get a good seal with my stencil and where the wood was imperfect.  It makes it imperfect like me :).  I love it even more because I made it.  

I am signed up to attend a Java and Wood Painting Party in November.  We are doing Autumn/Thanksgiving themed signs (SQUEAL)!! Y'all know its my most favorite time of the year so I'm especially excited about that one.  I have also been invited to a Christmas party the first weekend in December but I'm having second thoughts about it because its going to be a rather extra large party, she's topping off at 40 people.  I'm not sure I want to do that.  I mean, I'm all about making a sign for Christmas, but I'm not sure I want to with 39 other people.  I like intimate small groups.  Call me weird, I can handle it. One thing you should know for sure is if I go, I will share my results with y'all.
Hope you are having a great week.  I woke up with a massive headache that lingered with me throughout the day.  I would have been happy to have stayed home and slept but no such luck. Oh well.

Y'all be good.

MIA & Vacation Rewind

I know, I know, I've gone missing for almost a month but we've been busy having fun and relaxing.  Every time I thought about writing, something else would get my attention and no writing would happen.  We left off with great anticipation of my upcoming vacation. I can't tell you the excitement I felt that Friday I woke up and didn't have to drag myself to work.  This time off was very much needed.  I wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of my co-worker Callie.  She filled in where she could for me while I was gone.  This allowed me to spend my time away from the office and not have to come in.  Hallelujah!  It started off a bit rough and ended rough.  Fridays can be that way sometimes, but we worked through everything with phone calls and text messages.

The first leg of our vacation was at Leisure Resorts in Fentress, TX.  This place is nestled between Luling and San Marcos on the San Marcos River.  It was so much fun.  I had forgotten just how much I really loved floating the river, but I was quickly reminded after our first float.  Along that float and many times afterwards, I proclaimed my love of the river versus the beach.  No comparison for me.  I prefer the river any day.  We went up Friday afternoon and came back Monday afternoon.  Our group took up a good portion of the camp area.  We all stayed in cabins (us), campers or tents.  I didn't get any pictures on this portion of the trip.  My phone stayed at the cabin the entire time we were there. Sad I didn't get any pictures of our camp, the river, our floats or anything but it was nice to disconnect for those days.  Glenn did get a group picture of everyone before we all went our separate ways Monday afternoon.

That's a good looking and super fun crew right there!  I have made a deposit for next year and plans are in the works to make it even more fun and exciting than this year. I have to tell y'all, what was really nice about this resort is it is family oriented, not a lot of college kids drinking and carousing. I mean, the adults were drinking but not in a let's get loud and obnoxious kind of way.  It was so relaxing, friendly people everywhere and everyone looking out for each other.  Just good family fun. 

So Monday morning we had breakfast with everyone and then went back to begin packing up to head home.  We made it home to unpack river stuff, load up beach house stuff and head to Surfside until Friday morning. Let me back up a bit and tell y'all that Saturday morning I was sitting on the porch of my cabin enjoying my coffee while perusing FB when I see a post by my brother that they had a Saturday morning surprise.  My Coastie nephew came down for the beach house!  Of course, he teased his Aunts that he was leaving Monday morning because he knew we wouldn't be back in town until Monday afternoon.  That was soon squashed because my Daddy loves his girls and takes care of us.  He made our brother send us a message to let us know that Paul would be at the beach house all week, that we didn't need to come home early....because that's precisely what we were planning to do!

I stunk at taking pics on vacation this year but I did get some with our Pooh Bear....

 

  

Perfect timing!  Paul the photo bomber!

That last one of me on the beach was taken with my sister's phone.  I wanted proof that I actually did make it down to the beach. Ha! 

My time off was so much appreciated.  I was semi-ready to come back.  I wanted more time to do things at home but was also ready to get back to routine.  I did have a rough couple of days after coming back.  The downside of being gone for week, feeling completely lost when you get back and not knowing what is going on at work. :)

Christopher started Cross Country practice this morning.  He will be in a mood about mid-week once all that running hits his body and he gets really sore.  Price to pay when you don't run all summer. #ouch

Bella will be volleyballing with my sister at the HS while Chris is practicing.  Sure do appreciate her allowing my girl to hang out with them during this time.  It saves me in child care for another 3 weeks.  We won't talk about how that has gone up along with everything else.  #sucksbeinganadultsometimes

By the way, can you even believe its August?!!?  

I heard a rumor Bath & Body Works has pumpkin everything in stock.  

I confirmed that rumor to be true this past Saturday.  I bought myself a treat for surviving school shopping with the 17 and 7 year old.  

The 3-wick candles were buy one, get one free.  Score!!!!!!!!  

Until next time....y'all have a good one!