Home sweet home
We got back after being gone in Ohio for 10 days on Monday afternoon. 5 days in Ohio. 5 days in the car. 22 hours each way. Thousands of miles in between and yet, Ohio and Texas…they are both home.
Our life together began here. We had our babies here. This is home. But when we go to Ohio and see our family, it’s home too. Family that we adore but family that we don’t see but once or twice a year. The time we spend there is precious.
Grandmas and Great Grandmas
Sisters
Cousins
Our family is a melting pot of races and cultures and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
My friends are home to me too. They live so very far and yet are so very close because they also live in my phone…we text and email daily. I love them.
It was a good, good visit.
On the way home we decided to stop in Nashville for the night to see the famous Christmas light display at the Opryland Resort. Um, yeah. You know me with Christmas. This was the most magical Christmas light display I’ve ever seen. I kind of wanted to live there.
But, then it was time to go home. Our Texas home. The home I love the most. Coming back to this
and this
and this.
Ya just can’t beat it.
It’s December which means Christmas is 25 days away. Let the giddy-ness continue.
Fall
Along with the seasonal and yearly changes, I guess I changed too. I used to have a hunger to want to blog constantly and lately here posts have been few and far between. So, I’ve decided to just blog when I have something to say like many of you do. It doesn’t have to be consistent or on a schedule. I will write when I feel like the words I say have some meaning and not just because it’s been a few days and I haven’t. Not that it was ever like that but lately I just haven’t had anything to really put out there. I’m friends with so many of you on Twitter or Facebook so I don’t feel disconnected like I thought I would if I didn’t blog a few times a week.
With that said, it’s fall. Now, I realize that fall doesn’t officially start til the end of this month but I don’t care. I love fall here. The weather finally has broken. It’s in the high 80s and low 90s during the day instead of the 102 it was for WEEKS daily. The humidity is gone. We’re able to be outside without sweating. We don’t need jackets or sweaters…I love it. We pick pumpkins in tank tops and shorts and we take hayrides with sunglasses on and flip flops. It’s a Texas fall and I couldn’t ask for anything more.
Well except for the leaves changing colors. I do miss that about Ohio.
So what have we been up to? Well Livie started Mother’s Day Out twice a week. The Man’s mom teaches the class so I thought she’d be fine and have fun.
Wrong.
She cries all day. She’s so nervous and just not in her comfort zone no matter who is around so we’re not sure if she’ll make it or be a preschool drop out. Either way, she looked really cute on her first day.
Hannah won her first belt buckle for her riding comps this summer. We’re so proud.
At her lesson after that her teacher decided to move her up to a bigger horse. She’s so excited about that. So are we.
And last weekend The Man and I took a trip to New Orleans for an early 10 year anniversary celebration just us two. What we didn’t know when we planned this weeks ago was that a massive tropical storm named Lee would be making landfall the day we got there. It rained the whole weekend but we made the best of it. We got out when it wasn’t too bad and took cabs and stayed inside when it did.
It may not look like fall outside or even feel like it to most people, but to me it’s here. And if you read this blog in a reader, you’ll have to check out my actual page because it’s fall on my blog too.
Happy September and lots of browns and oranges and hopefully changing leaves to you.
The lake
When I lived in Ohio, we lived 15 minutes from Lake Erie. I’ve always lived by the beach so when we moved here and the beach was 30 minutes away I was glad because I can’t imagine NOT living close to the water. What I DO miss though? Lake water. I hate the salt. I hate the eye sting. I hate the stickyness on my skin after. I do, however, love the waves. Ocean waves are the best. So going back to a lake to swim this weekend was awesome. The kids loved the change. I loved that I could actually be on a boat and NOT get sea sick. It was fantastic.
So what’d we do all weekend? Well the kids swam…a lot.
They also rode their bikes.
They relaxed.
The Man grilled.
We made s’mores.
And what I thought was the most fun…we were on the lake…in a boat…getting a tan…tubing…drinking beer. Ahh, relaxation.
That would be my sister and law and me tubing by the way. My first wipe out I almost lost my bikini bottoms and sucked in a mouthful of water and choked for a while. It was still fun though after I learned to wipe out gracefully and while holding my nose.
It was so nice to have a weekend away with family. I never take the fact that I love them all and they love me for granted. We had a great time and I’ve been itching to get away. What’s even better is coming home today and not worrying about all the work that is piled up at work…that’ll take some getting used to. We love our trips, this little family of mine. And this one was great.
Almost summer part 2
This weekend we had a just the 3 of us kind of weekend. Hannah went with her cousin and The Man’s mom and step dad to Sea World. They left Friday morning and by about 8 am these kids were bouncing off the walls with excitement.
And Livie was there to say bye. She was going to be an only child for the weekend and while she probably didn’t know it, I knew she’d enjoy it. Yes, she gets a lot of one on one time with me during the day but this is the last week of school and all summer long it won’t just be me and her or her dad and her.
And as soon as we got back home from taking Sister to Nana’s house, she took full advantage and put on Hannah’s socks since she wasn’t home to oblige.
And while I believe in Jesus and Heaven and the Rapture, I also knew that Saturday wasn’t going to be THE day so to poke a little fun at this quack of a preacher, we decided to get a Rapture dessert. This thing was 10 inches long and weighed like 5 pounds and we said all day that at least if Jesus DID come, we could say we ate the most amazing, delicious, one of a kind dessert ever.
It was an apple pie inside of an apple cake topped with a pecan pie inside chocolate cake topped with pumpkin pie inside a spice cake all wrapped in cream cheese icing. It took us all weekend but we finished this bad boy last night. I have no shame in saying that either.
The rest of the weekend we lounged, shopped, played, and took pictures…even silly ones. Liv is obsessed with these and when she finds them in her toy pile they go on right away and stay on for hours…indents in her face and all.
But then as always, Hannah came home and had a blast. She got new toys and even rode her first roller coaster. I’m kind of bummed I wasn’t there to see it but from what I hear, she’s never riding another one again.
But they picked up where they left off. Sometimes arguing, sometimes getting along, but knowing they DID miss each other.
And today? Back to the grind. I like this grind though. I’ve cleaned all morning. My floors are spotless…the clothes are being washed by the load and they have picked up right where they left off too.
It’s the last week of school. The last week of alarms and schedules. It’s ALMOST summer…
And we’re excited.
10 days later
I had 10 days with my family. 10 days with my girls. 10 days off work.
They were a good 10 days.
The usual stresses of being back home were still there. I was annoyed at times and tired most times but it was still a good vacation and I’m already looking forward to the next time I have off work which just so happens to be Christmas weekend (5 days off for me!) and we all know how I feel about Christmas. As I type this there is Christmas music blaring and I’m humming along. I’ve been stressed at work today trying to catch up on work but I just keep singing along because it’s Christmas and dammit, I’m not letting work or stress steal my joy.
Thank you all by the way for your awesome, sweet comments last week during my meltdown. I blog for reasons just like that…because y’all swooped in and picked me up when I didn’t think it was possible to be scraped off the floor. And so with that energy I did what I needed to do at work and packed Friday evening. I will say that driving to Ohio will not be done again for LONG time. Unless there is an emergency, God forbid, I think we all agree that yes plane tickets are expensive and we DID have to drive but driving is up there is NOT happening again for a long time.
Maybe ever.
The girls fought in the back seat. Hannah complained about not being able to get comfortable. The baby whined because she couldn’t sleep well. Someone even got road rage for no reason against us and ran us off the road. It was eventful and crazy and LONG (22 hours) and yeah…not happening again for years.
But we got there safely and visited and laughed and ATE so much (gained 3.5 lbs while I was gone. HEH.) and then Thanksgiving came and went and it was fabulous.
And so after drama on our way home that involved major traffic and our trip being delayed by hours I extended my vacation one more day and took the day off yesterday. I needed it. I didn’t unpack. I didn’t clean my house. I sat around and caught up on TV shows. I even attempted some cute Christmasy type pictures in hopes that Livie would cooperate because I had this grand idea that OMG if she cooperated that I’d get Hannah in a cute Christmas outfit and attempt a cute Christmas card picture. I’m giving myself a break this year and not sending out cards but I still wanted to make one to post on Facebook and send to my mom. Well, Hannah did awesome.
But when I threw Liv into the mix…
Disaster.
So that was the end of that. We’ll try again later this week.
Maybe.
Just a quick short post to let you know I survived my trip and I’m slowly settling back into our normal. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!
My lifesaving trip
I don’t think I can stress enough how this trip to San Francisco saved me. I was about to implode from work. Literally. And I’ve been missing my friends for two years now. That in itself was wearing on me. EVERYTHING was wearing on me though. I needed just a few days to unwind and relax and laugh and be childless. So that’s what we did. We did things we would do with friends we see all the time and that’s exactly what I wanted. I wasn’t there to be entertained. I was there to hang out and do normal friend things. So we shopped at my mecca aka Coach.
We had yummy drinks.
We went dancing.
We played with neighbor dogs.
(After I took this picture I fell in love with my camera and lens all over again. This is unedited. Freakin amazing.)
We took photoshoots on boats parked in the street.
We went into the city and did a little site seeing.
And thank God for Jennster who is as much as a camera freak as me because then I wouldn’t have awesome pictures like this of me and The Man. I had to crop his face out for obvious reasons BUT it’s still amazing and the real version is even MORE amazing.
But mostly, we laughed. A lot.
And that is how you go from being ready to explode to feeling alive. I was ready to come home to my girls and hug and love on them, yes. But in those days I was gone I was rejuvenated and restored. I don’t know how I’d live without my friends whether they be here near me or far away but near in my heart. Thank you girls for giving me a fantastic weekend! I love you.
Weekend recap
This weekend was great. So great I fought a hangover all day yesterday. HAH. Hubs and I had a lot of fun on our weekend away. We missed our babies but we didn’t realize how much we missed eachother until we got out there. It was perfect timing and just a lot of fun. I took this awesome picture of The Alamo when we were out there (San Antonio)….
I love it.
Before we left for our little trip, we threw Hubs’ grandma a surprise party for her 75th birthday. She lives in Ohio but she’s here visiting for 2 months and if you know my family, you know that we will throw a party for every birthday–really, for anything. HAH. I loved the decorations and the cake though.
Livie loved it too 
By the way, remember when I said she’d be walking soon? Scratch that. This girl is NEVER going to walk. Pulling up and walking across furniture is apparently good enough for her. I’m not gonna rush it though. The faster she walks…the faster she grows up. And we all know how I feel about my girls’ growing up lately.
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