...about a month ago...

So, my family is adjusting to this idea of having family members that live out of state.  Let me just tell you...we don't like it, but we are making the best of it.

So, right when Sloane was born in June, Southwest airlines was having a cheap flights deal and we booked a flight for Kelly to fly to Houston in September.  The plan was for them to fly into Houston and then I would drive them down to Corpus so that my all of my parent's friends could meet Sloanie.  Well, if you recall, when Sloane was born life was pretty crazy with my dad having a stroke and all, and I was in charge of booking the flight for Kelly, well...I kind of booked the reverse flights...as in, a flight from Houston to SLC instead of from SLC to Houston.  Thankfully Kelly realized this about a month before her flight and it only ended up costing us about $50 to change the flight...yeah, she was not very happy with me when she realized the mistake I had made.  Thankfully, alls well that ends well.

Anywho, Kelly & Sloane flew in on a Wednesday night and we had dinner with all of her in-laws since a lot of Brandon's family lives in Houston and had yet to meet Sloane.  Then Thursday we drove to Corpus.  Friday was filled with breakfast with Jana, 3 month pics of Sloane (which turned out to be quite an ordeal, but worth it), and then late that night Kristy's family arrived, having driven in from Waco to see Kelly & Sloane for the weekend.

Saturday was fun as a lot of my mom's friends came over for a little "Sip n See".  Here are some pix from that morning.  My only regret is that I didn't get any pics with my mom or sisters, I guess we were letting everyone else have time with Sloane.  Oh, and my 9 year old niece had 2 little friends that came and at one point they stole Sloane away and "babysat" her in the back room...wish I had gotten pics of them fawning over her!  Sweet cousins!

I had to head back to Corpus on Saturday, but only after making my niece, Ashlyn, a matching pair of fabric covered Toms! She said they are all the rage in her 4th grade class, including with her teacher!

Anywho, Kelly & Sloane stayed in CC til Monday to spend more time with Mom & Dad, and Kristy & her kids.  Kristy and her kids went back to Waco on Sunday, and then mom took Monday & Tuesday off of work to bring Kelly & Sloane back to Houston to catch their flight out back to SLC.

So, when Mom, Kelly & Sloane got to Houston on Monday, Katy & her boys had gotten to Houston so that they could spend some time with and see Sloane! So fun to all get together!  We didn't really do anything special, just some shopping and playing and fawning over precious Sloanie. 

Everyone had to head back to their homes on Tuesday, but not before we got a few cute pix with me & the cousins...enjoy!

Can you tell I am obsessed with this bundle of cuteness?  Can't wait to see her @ Christmas...too long!

...DIY Staycation 2011..

As is usual, I am behind in blogging, but here is an attempt to catch up. 

At the end of August Rebecca, Raquel & I got crafty during our self-invoked DIY Staycation 2011! We had contemplated going somewhere, but ended up deciding just some down time at my house being crafty sounded just as appealing and hopefully cheaper! We had all recently been inspired by some Pinterest crafts and were dying to try some out...So, that's what we did!

Date: Labor Day Weekend
Event: DIY Staycation 2011
Participants: Raquel, Rebecca & myself
Location: Mi casa
Goal: Equal parts chill time, craft time, and fun time!

We started off our weekend on Friday evening.  The girls arrived at my house and then we headed off to dinner & a supply gathering stop at Hobby Lobby!  We had decided to each decorate a pair of shoes (yes, idea originally from Pinterest), and possibly some other crafts that may come up along the way.

After some juicy hamburgers from 5 guys, we headed off to Hobby Lobby to make some decisions and hope to be inspired.

The rest of the night Rebecca started her artistic design on her Chuck's while Raquie & I just did some planning for how we would cover our Toms with fabric.

Saturday morning we woke, wasting no time at all, to get crafting, after a nice cup of joe & some pancakes, that is!  Shortly after lunch we realized that we had run out of glue, so we had to go to JoAnne's to be able to finish off our shoes.  This was our first trip to the BRAND NEW JoAnne's in Katy, and let me tell you, it did not disappoint!

We also happened to be passing by Ritter's frozen custard, so we decided to treat ourselves to a yummy cold treat!

On our way home we saw this, look closely, yes, it's a car with car lashes! Gave us a good laugh for sure!

Unfortunately we had to break things up that evening, as Rebecca & I headed to church.  I think most of our shoes were close to done by this point.  After church, we reconvened at me house to make yummy lasagna!

 I believe we watched another movie and put some finishing touches on our crafts while also flipping through some magazines! Ah...perfect girl bonding time!

Of course, we all headed to church on Sunday morning.  After church, Rebecca & I made 7 layer dip tostadas, de-lish! Yes, this idea came from Pinterest as well!

Sunday afternoon was filled with laying in bed, girl talk, naps, and topped off with a viewing of Titanic!

After ordering pizza, we treated ourselves to this amazing dessert: a Cookie Monster! Yes, that's a massive guey cookie cooked in a frying pan in the oven, topped with hershey's syrup, ice cream, nuts and then more syrup! MMmmm

I think it only took us about 3 minutes to get to this point:

By Monday our shoes were done, Rebecca had made a cute rosette necklace and I had painted some canvases for my friend's birthday.  Raquel had gone home to spend time with her mom, so Rebecca & I decided we had no other choice but to hit the 290 Outlet Mall!!! Man, did I get into trouble there!

Here are our finished products!

All in all it was a great long weekend, with a perfect balance of fun and crafting!  Love you girls!

...Single Moments 7, 8 & 9...

Some of you may have forgotten a series I started 2 years ago, entitled "Single Moments." Well, it's back and this time in full force. I have 3, count 'em 1,2,3, moments to share. All 3 have happened in the past few weeks, and all 3 were when in conversation with my niece or nephews...kids, they can be so brutally honest, gotta love 'em.

Single Moment #7

Unfortunately I don't remember the full context of this conversation, but we my oldest nephew (9 yes), Brady, and I were talking about families. This is a summary of the conversation:

Brady: "Well, yeah, Bubba (me), cuz you don't have a family."
Me: "Excuse me?"
Brady: "Uh, well...Uh, you know what I mean."
Me: "I do?" (just giving him a hard time)
Brady: "Yeah, you know. Like you're not married, you don't have kids."
Me: "Thanks for the reminder!"


Single Moment #8

This conversation was with my 6 year old nephew, Blake. What you need to know is that Blake has been asking his parents a lot of questions about boy/girl relationships, why ppl get married, etc. His parents (my sis & BIL) have taught him that you only marry someone if God tells you to marry them. Blake's comment to me:

"Bubba, why hasn't God told you who you are going to marry yet?"


Single Moment #9

While driving in the car with my 9 year old niece, the song "I Loved Her First" came on. If you're not familiar with the song it's a dad singing to his daughter's fiancé, telling him that he (the dad) loved her first. He says how hard it will be to give her away, how he held her first, he loved her first, and she'll always be his little girl. I told my niece how sweet I thought this song was, so I told her to listen to the words. Well one part of the song says, "I prayed that she'd find you some day, but it's still hard to give her away..." I'm not kidding you, out if nowhere Ashlyn says,

"I guess Gramps (my dad) quit praying for you."
Me:"Excuse me?"
Ashlyn: "Uh, I just mean..."
Me:"Yeah, you better mean that he's still praying! Right?"
Ashlyn: "Right."

Seriously, what am I going to do with these kids?

...KIDNAPPED '11...

If you know me at all, you know that for several years now my sister (Kelly) & I have done "Aunt's Weekend!"  And if you don't know me, why are you reading this blog? Moving on, last year Kelly & I told the kids that it was the last Aunt's Weekend :( We knew Kelly was going to be moving to Utah, and then it really sealed the deal when Kelly found out she was preggers.  There was just no way.

Well...as time passed, not only were the kids sad that there were no more Aunt's Weekends, but I started getting sad about it myself.  I hadn't realized how much I looked forward to that special time with those kiddos! I mean, they're stinkers, but I LOVE 'EM!

So, some time early last week, I got a notion, to surprise kidnap the older 5 and steal them away for a day filled with fun and surprises.  So, last Friday, that's just what I did.

Yes, I called it "KIDNAPPED!" The back of the kid's shirts said, "Kids?...Yes!" "Naps?...NO!"  The back of my and my sister (Katy's) shirt said, "Kid?...No." "Nap?...YES!" Ha! Get it?!?

Well, I'll let the pics show you what all we did that day (super annoyed that these are showing up sideways...):

About to go into the Maybourn Children's Museum!

Cute Cole learning about the evolution of communication...land line telephones! ha!

Ash & Brady playing "house"!

Cutest bus driver I ever saw!

Yes, he's about to smack the heck out of those drums!

LARGE Bison!

Very proud of themselves for figuring this out (with some help).

Seriously, love that smile!

Ashlyn doing the wash!

This was his idea to dress like the school boy and pose with his hand up...kid cracks me up!

Walk like an Egyptian! The special exhibit at the museum right now is an Egypt exhibit, the kids loved it, especially the mummy!

You can't go to Waco without visiting the Baylor Bear Pit! Sic 'Em Bears!

After lunch we spent the afternoon painting pottery!

Then picked up a sweet treat at Katy's Custard before heading home! MMMmmmmm!



Always fun times making memories with my favorite kiddos in the whole world!

...summer update...

Well, it's official, this has to be the longest stretch I've EVER gone without blogging.  I could apologize and say I'm going to do better, but instead, I'll just do my best to update you we'll see if I do better.  I have a feeling I can do better than once every 6 weeks...but we'll see.  Stay tuned! Warning, this is a long post, read at your own leisure!

Ok, well, I"m gonna see if I can give you a run down of the past 6 weeks.

Back in June, right after the last post, I had VBS! My biggest week of the year.  We had a great week, not without challenges, but still great and worth every ounce of planning and energy! I love my church and the amazing people that selflessly serve to pull off amazing events like VBS!

On the Monday after VBS I headed to my sister's house in the Temple area.  The rest of my family was already there.  EARLY on Tuesday morning we caravanned to Dallas to await the arrival of my niece, Sloane McKinsey Hill!  Kelly had been induced that morning and was already in the hospital, just waiting for the contractions to increase and time for Sloanie to make her grand entrance!  We all had a great time spending the day together, waiting to meet my newest niece!  Did I mention that this day, June 21st is my dad's b-day too! How cool, he & Sloane share a birthday!

Sisters...before Sloane was born.

A little after 3:00 we were all asked to leave the room, and it was time to push! Sloane was born @ 3:33, an even 6 lbs!  We had a great time seeing her, taking pics, celebrating!

Weepy, joyful mom, dad & baby!

After getting Kelly settled, running to grab dinner for her, and picking up some beautiful flowers for mom & baby, we all returned to the hospital a little before 7:00.  I include this detail, because it was right around 7:00 when my mom asked my dad to go get something from the car that she had forgotten.  After he hadn't returned for 30 mins or answered MANY calls from my mom, an ER dr finally answered my dad's cell phone and told me that my dad was in the ER...WHAT?  There was some confusion, fear, anxiety, the list goes on.

After my brother-in-law, mom & oldest sister had all headed down to the ER, some tests had been run, we were informed that my dad's blood pressure had been 250 (this is astronomical!) and he had had a stroke (yes, on his 62nd birthday).  At some point I headed down to the ER to see my dad.  We were taking turns staying with Kelly & Sloane as well.  Yes, as you can imagine, this was craziness.  I don't think I was fully prepared to see my dad.  He had minimal to no control over his left side.  The weird thing was that control was going in and out.  At some moments he could raise his left arm & leg, others, not so much.  Several drs were in and out, assessing his progress.  The decision was made to give my dad the "miracle drug," PTA.  There are some risky side effects, but we decided we would trust God and PRAY!

This picture was taken right after Sloane was born, does this look like a man that would have a stroke 3.5 hrs later?

Ok, I can't and won't go into ALL the details of that night.  Just know that it was scary.  We all felt helpless and quite scared.  Not sure what the effects of the stroke would be.  I do need to mention to you, that through ALL of this, my dad remained not only upbeat and joyful, but unwavering in his faith! He was constantly telling the nurses & drs that he was going to be ok because God was in control! I'm telling you, that's my dad! Even as he was slurring his words because he had no control of the left side of his mouth, he was cracking jokes and giving Glory to God.

So, that's what we did.  We waited, prayed and trusted God.  After a sleepless night full of praying, my dad in the ICU, an MRI, more drs and physical therapists, we were encouraged to see that my was dad doing really well, and had regained strength on his left side!  On Friday, my dad was released from the hospital with no residual effects from the stroke! This truly is a miracle and we give ALL glory to GOD!

Dad has been fatigued, which is a normal part of recovery from a stroke.  He has returned to work gradually and still tells his cheesy jokes and calls to check in for no reason.  I am beyond grateful that my dad was in a hospital when he had the stroke.  Man, GOD IS IN THE DETAILS!  What a scary time, but what a blessing that my family was all together and walked through this together.

Meanwhile, Kelly was a new mom! She & Sloane were released from the hospital on Thursday.  For those of you who don't know, Kelly & Brandon were moving a week after Sloane's birth.  So, instead of taking Sloanie home to home sweet home, they settled into an extended stay hotel for 5 days :)  I was able to stay in Dallas til Monday to help with Kelly, Sloane, Dad, getting food, running errands, etc.

Kelly, Brandon & Sloane all moved to Utah that week.  After they had been there for 2 weeks, I went to Utah to help unpack boxes and make their house a home! I was so glad to hold and love on my sweet Sloanie again! Kelly & I got A LOT done! When I left to come back to TX, we had unpacked ALL of the boxes, set up Sloane's nursery, hung pictures on the wall and made some other finishing touches on the house!

Here's my fave pic, the day I was supposed to be leaving:

Ok, one last story, then I'll wrap this marathon post.  So, on that Saturday, I was supposed to fly to from Utah to Corpus.  Ashlyn, my oldest niece was being baptized on Sunday.  When I got to the airport the guy at the counter told me that my flight had been delayed due to mechanical issues.  This meant I COULD NOT get to CC in time for the baptism.  I lost it!  I was so upset! This had been so important to me, and I wanted Ashlyn to know how important I thought it was! After my mom calmed me down, we figured out that I would stay in Salt Lake until Sunday, then fly to Houston.  So, an extra 24 hrs with my Sloanie...well, that was ok with me!

Whew, that's it guys! Now, here it is July 22, Sloane is 1 month old and I can't wait to see her again in September! Oh, and my parents celebrated 40 years of marriage on July 2nd! Pretty amazing!

Here's to hoping I post more frequently than every 6 weeks!

...booger dress...

Yes, you read the title correctly. I said "booger dress." So, last weekend I was out running errands (and may I mention it was sweltering HOT!). I happened to be in TJMaxx, and I happened to see a cute summery dress, and I happened to try it on, and I happened to buy it. For $13!

I wore my new dress to work on Monday with some leggings, feeling super cute. Got tons of compliments, which made my bargain find all the more worth it. I guess it was after lunch, and I was brushing my hair off of my shoulder when I felt something hard on my dress. Initially, I thought it was a crumb or something from lunch, but it didn't just brush off.

I couldn't see whatever was on my dress very well because it was on the backside of my shoulder. I asked my intern what she thought it was and if she could get it off for me. It was at that point that we realized this foreign object was SEWN INTO my dress. My intern acted casual and said, "Eh, just leave it. It might make a hole if you tried to remove the mystery item."

After another 5-10 mins, I was not ok leaving this random thing in my dress. I happened to see another girl intern and asked her to inspect the situation. She acted non challant and said something along the same lines as my intern. Thanks for nothing girls!

So now, I was on a mission of removal of this extra addition to my new dress. I saw the 3rd girl intern and told her she had to inspect my dress. Upon looking we still had no clue what the said object was, but we could tell it wasn't budging. That's when genius struck and intern #3 said, "I have tweezers with me!" So, out came the tweezers for full extraction of the wedged item.

It took some work to pull the item out from under several (read: 6-8) threads, but intern #3 was determined. She was finally successful, and upon further inspection, we both were disgustingly confident that the foreign object was nothing other than...

....A BOOGER!

Y'all, I'm not kidding. We were both so grossed out that intern #3 flung the booger and started telling everyone I was wearing a booger dress! Ha! Needless to say, I didn't really feel very cute anymore, and this dress is forever going to be known as "booger dress."

Ok, obviously this is crazy and isn't a normal occurrence, but I guess my $13 steal came with something a little extra! Ugh! I'm not sure if you've put it all together, but all I can guess is that the booger belonged to either the dress maker, or more likely the fabric maker. NASTY!

Lesson learned: fully inspect ALL clothing before purchasing, especially at discount stores!

Thanks intern #3 for being so committed to the cause!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

...new look...

I had been bouncing around the idea of getting bangs. So I mentioned it to my hairstylist and of course she jumped at the idea. So, as of Saturday, this is my new look...we'll see how long they stick around or if I get sick of 'em and just let them grow out. I've gotten quite a nice response from everyone, which is super encouraging, I guess I'm just not sure if it looks like me, ya know?  My nephew (Brady, 9) said I reminded him of someone, he just couldn't figure out who...I suggested maybe it was Velma from Scooby Doo (the glasses really help the comparison)...you be the judge (the 1st and 3rd pictures are both Velma from one of the Scooby Doo movies, even though it may not appear so).

 I may have just uncovered my next Halloween costume idea!