Wishful Wednesday - Style

Another week has gone by without a blog post.  Blog time has slipped away from me this summer since the kids are keeping me sooooo busy.  By the time Tim gets home from work, I am ready to go to bed.   I have skipped my 2am bedtimes and staying up late to do "me" things.  I'm going to TRY to be better at it since I don't want to miss chronicling our memories.

It's Wednesday again and the topic is Style.

'I wish' .... I would get to open my closet and it would be a White House Black Market Boutique!  I would have unlimited choices on clothes, shoes, accessories and my own shopping attendant who would keep bringing me new selections to try on!!!

Years ago, on one of our local independent tv stations, there was a daytime commercial for one of those fashion institutes and the girl talking said, "I love hats, I love clothes, I love shoes".  Then the announcer said, "Does this sound like you" and I though, "Yes, that's is me".   I never went to the fashion institute. I did however almost choose Fashion Merchandising as a major and took several fashion related courses in college. 

Since I was little, I have always loved fashion, clothes, design and style.  One of my favorite toys was Fashion Plates and we had an old blue sheet that I used to create all kinds of dresses with.  Lately, I feel like my style has taken a back seat to mommyhood.  I do miss the days of getting dressed up to go to work at the office and wearing heels, but I still loved getting all dolled up even if I'm just running errands.  It makes me feel good and I know my little girly girl Sydney loves it when her momma puts on makeup and pretty clothes! 

I love, love, love White House Black Market!!!  I love black clothes.  I love white clothes.  I love animal print.  They incorporate all of that at WHBM and they add touches of color at different times of the year.  I don't think I have ever gone in there and not found a million things that I want.  Not to mention, they have fab shoes and accessories.  If you add your name to their Little Black Book, you get really great coupons and even a little birthday surprise!

Here are some of my favorite picks!!!

The girl in me still gets so excited when I shop and in the back of my mind, I still hear that girl on the commercial saying, "I love hats, I love clothes, I love shoes"!

Wishful Wednesday - "I Wish I Hadn't Lost..."

It's wishful Wednesday again.  Here's the topic:

'I wish' .... I hadn't lost ______!!

I wish I hadn't lost my best friend Amy due to her family's move.

Besides my sister, my other bestie is my longtime childhood friend Amy.  She and I met the night of my birthday party in 5th grade, the night we saw "A Christmas Story".  How could a girl be so lucky to have a friend who was in my grade, AND lived right next door?!  Our rooms were even facing each other and at times we would open our windows to talk when we couldn't play.

We soon became instant best friends.  We had sleepovers, watched Miss USA, played with our Little Seaweeds, stretchy coil bracelets and rubber ones too that came in every color (by today's standards - Sillybandz).  Amy and I loved Blueberry Bubble Yum, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper (and even dressed like her on Halloween), Whitney Houston and Loverboy.  We played Swing-a-Statue and tag in the yard with the neighbor kids.  Our favorite movie was The Goonies.  Amy's mom made the best French pancakes for breakfast and macaroni salad for lunch!  We loved going to AstroWorld.  Amy put up with my love of my rainbow collection.  We started junior high together and made fun of the science teacher - Mrs. St. John and then us nerdy girls joined the Science Club so we could go on cool field trips and wear dorky visors.  We then joined Pep Squad even though that was also considered nerdy.  We started a friendship notebook that I still have.  We traded notes in between class and talked about any and everyone and we even had a crush on the same boy - Brian McMullin. 

I was devasted when I found out at the end of six grade that Amy would be moving to Dallas.  Even though that was just four hours away, it was still too far.  We would also be moving, not so far away from my childhood house but I would be going to a new school also.  I was moving away from all my friends that I had known since Kindergarten.  Seventh grade was going to be a rough year!

Amy and I kept in touch through letters and long-distance phone calls.  That's when long-distance was really expensive and we couldn't talk for long.  That was waaay before e-mails or Skype or Facebook or texting.  Wow, things would have been so much easier with all that!!  I missed her so much and luckily we got to spend a week together each summer to catch up.  I was so excited to fly to Dallas by myself on a plane to visit.  We went out on the boat, went to Six Flags, talked about boys, looked at yearbooks, drooled over Tom Cruise in Top Gun, saw Cocktail, got sun tans in the backyard, talked about our future careers and husbands over ice cream at Braum's - we were both going to be flight attendants for American and travel all over. 

Then in high school, they moved even further away to Alabama.  My dreams of getting in my car in high school and driving up to see Amy were soon gone.   We still made trips to see each other and had so much fun driving around in Amy's car, going to the mall, meeting some interesting guys and hanging out at the beach in Pensacola watching the Blue Angels! 

She was in my wedding and I was in both of hers (the first one ended in divorce and I was six months pregnant with Sydney in a bridesmaids dress for the second one and I don't have a picture of that).  I felt bad that I wasn't close by to be there for her during her divorce.  As I am typing this, I'm thinking has it really been six years since we have seen each other??  I just can't believe it. 

I am so proud of her that she is finally a mommy of an almost two-year old.  I never thought she would do it.  I'm sad that I have never seen sweet Corinne and my kids don't know her.  That's what work, kids, crazy lives and schedules have done!!  We do message sometimes on Facebook and I hope one of these days we can get together for a girls' weekend.

I miss you sooo much Amy and I'm so glad we share so many fun childhood memories together!!  In November, we will have known each other for 27 years!!  Even though distance and three states separates us, you will always be my best friend! 

Getting to see my best friend every day...that is what I wish I had not lost!!

Fun Friday!

Today was such a fun Friday!  We had a great first week of summer and I'm still sane.  Yes, I am an order taker/waitress, spill cleaner up-er and maid for the next three months, but I love having my babies with me!!

My nephew Jacob has been with us this week and spent the night at our house two nights in a row.  The boys have had so much fun together - laughing, telling jokes, catching up, playing games, making plans for a lemonade stand next week, talking about rides at Disney, going to It'z, watching videos on You Tube, playing Just Dance on the Wii and dodging Sydney and Brody.  It makes me sad that they can't really spend this much time together until summer.  I have loved having Jacob around.  He's sooo smart and sooo funny and sooo imaginative.  I love that kid!!

Today just seemed like a lazy day.  We all slept until about 10:15.  It was nice, especially since I have stayed up so late this whole week.  We hung around and ate a late breakfast.  I told the kids last night that we needed to go to the garden center to get some fresh flowers.  It's been so hot here that all my favorite petunias are all leggy and dead looking.   We started off at Starbuck's and they loved their smoothies and decaf Fraps.  Eventually, we found our way to the sea of flowers.  Jacob and Sydney loved being on the double-decker cart and I was their tour guide.

We stopped to get Little Caesar's to pick up pizza for lunch and then headed outside, in the sunny, humid, ever-so-hot 95 degree Houston weather.  I planted and the kids washed the car and played with Brody in his pool.  Blake even climbed up in the tree taking the hose with him and creating a pool "waterfall".  Where does he come up with his ideas?? 

Anyways, it was fun and somewhat lazy since it's was a Friday.  The best part of all, we were outside much of the afternoon and I wasn't their maid.  I got a little break!!  :-)

Writer’s Workshop: 30 Things I Vow to Do This Summer!

I follow Mama Kat on Twitter and saw her writing prompts.  Here's the one that I chose...

30 things I vow to do this summer (seeing that I have three kids (10, 6 and 18 months), this is subject to change and I will do a blog post at the end of the summer to see what I actually accomplished!

1.  Read two books, either Danielle Steele or Sandra Browne.  It's been over a year since I've read a book!

2.  Do my fall projects now so I don't kick myself that another year went by without adding some new decor to the house.

3.  Do fun and really messy, gooey, ickey, slimey experiments/projects with the kids.

4.  Lose 1 pound per month.

5.  Make dinner at least 4-5 times per week.

6.  Take an online photography class.

7.  Get a blog re-design.

8.  Get a new laptop since my other one is toast after only two years.  :-(

9.  Take a weekend family getaway somewhere in Texas.

10.  Paint and re-do hallway bathroom, pick a new paint color and add new framed mirrors and updated lights.

11.  Read a lot with the kids and take them to the library each week so this summer they actually get the Summer Reading Certificate and free book for the reading all their books!

12.  Decoupage and fix up my old childhood desk to put in Sydney's room.

13.  Pay it Forward (#13-#15) - surprise one unsuspecting clerk who is extra friendly, smiles, is nice, not rude, who actually greets me and talks to me and loves their job.  Give them a little reward for having a great attitude regardless of their minimum wage job.

14.  Pay for the person behind me at the toll booth.

15.  Pay for the person behind me in the fast food lane.

16.  Continue taking Blake and Sydney on dates.  They need to know they are special and they deserve some one-on-one time with their momma since our daily lives are so crazy!

17.  Take the beginner Photoshop online class my sister gave me for Christmas.

18.  Soak in the bathtub uninterrupted reading one of my books from #1.

19.  Sign Brody up for Mother's Day Out for the fall.

20.  Get to sleep early at least twice a week, these 2am bedtimes are killing me (well it's now actually 3:36 am as I'm typing, I'm in trouble tomorrow)!!

21.  Help the kids plant their vegetable/flower garden.

22.  Call my best childhood friend and talk instead of e-mailing or Facebooking, call my parents, brothers and in-laws more.

23.  Make some funky camera straps for my camera.

24.  Go to Barnes and Nobles by myself once a week to read, escape and come home a refreshed momma.

25.  Find a babysitter so Tim and I can go on some dates and have more late night snuggle time catching up on all kinds of DVR shows!!

26.  Hunt for new recipes to try each week instead of eating the same old stuff, this will help with #5!

27.  Do a kid swap with my sister...I take her three, she takes my three for the day - that way I get to spend quality time doing something different with my nieces and nephew. 

28.  Go downtown for lunch one day so the kids can eat lunch with their daddy.

29.  Go to the beach again with the entire family (parents, brother, my sister's family), we had so much fun when we did that over Memorial Day weekend.

30.  And last on the list...try not to sweat the small stuff and enjoy every day I have with the kids during the summer, school will be here again before we know it!

Messy Lil' Man

I'm sure every mom has the pictures of their kids making a mess or the famous spaghetti pictures.  Here are mine!!!  Brody loves spaghetti and there's nothing clean about it!!  He sure enjoyed himself and he made me laugh soooo hard by the time he was done rubbing it all in his face and hair!

How you like me now?

Happy Birthday Stephanie!

Today my baby sister turned 35!  She got the best present today...she is pregnant with her fourth baby and they found out this afternoon that it's another girl (the third)!!  The girls will reign in that household!!  It's not time to put away the dress-up clothes, the princesses, the hair bows, the high heels and all those girly clothes.  I'm so excited that I will still get to shop for a little girl!

My sister is the most patient and most loving mother ever.  I'm so proud of her for even trying to have a fourth baby.  But I know if anyone can do it, she can. 

We weren't always best of friends.  Growing up, I know she looked up to me.  I know I let her down all the times we would get our play restaurant setup or all the games lined up for a game convention and I decided that I didn't want to play anymore.  I was mean in high school to not let her wear my clothes and when I found out she did, I trashed her room.  How stupid and mean was that!  If I only knew then what best friends we would be today, that never would have happened!!  Steph - I'm sorry for all that!

You are my beautiful best friend, my confidant, you're there when I need to talk, you're there to get me through this crazy thing called motherhood, you're my "twin" - ha!, you're a wonderful, wife, mother and friend to others, you are amazingly creative and talented, you are caring and compassionate.  Your inner and outer beauty shines!!  I love having you as a sister and I'm so glad your girls will one day get to experience what it's like to have built in best friends like us!

I'm glad we got to share such a special day with you.  I love you!

P.S.  Isn't it crazy that we wore the almost exact outfit -  necklace and all!

Love,

Shan