June 23, 2011

Let's Talk Bailey Bear


I LOVE when she brushes or plays with my hair. Yesterday, I asked her if she wanted to play with my hair and she said, "No, I don't want to miss Bubble Guppies" and ran to her room. She's really into her TV shows right now. Poor thing can't play in our backyard right now because we still have no fence or a swing set. This child has GOT to be going through a growth spurt. She will NOT stop eating. Every 10 minutes I hear, "I'm hungry" in a whiny voice. I don't know which is more annoying, when they won't eat or when they won't stop eating. I looked in my baby book and Bailey was and is bigger than me at every check up by two pounds or a whole inch in height. That's awesome! Come on 6'+ athlete!!  Bailey has many of my qualities, mainly the bad ones. She bites her nails. If she can't figure something out, she will throw it and start crying. NO patience what-so-ever.  She is meticulous though. She likes to figure things out like mazes, she won't stop until she figures it out, like braiding hair, drawing stars, snapping her fingers, whistling, and tying her shoes are a few I can name right off. My favorite is when she is in her room and she yells, "Mom, can you come clean my room!?" She doesn't like it when her room is dirty. She ran outside while Jerry and I were working on the shop to show me that she cleaned her room. I have no idea where she gets that from?

"We can play Duck-Duck-Goose with my dolls, they know how to play." -Bailey

I picked her up from school today, yes she goes to school on Tuesday's and Thursday's to keep her spot for the fall. It's really great though, she's gets to keep learning, have fun water days, have social interaction with other kids, and it's not such an adjustment when school starts back up.  I'm not gonna lie, I enjoy having some quiet Mommy time, cleaning house alone, and running erands A LOT quicker.

You know what's not cool? Getting a school supply list in the summer! Bailey starts Pre-K in the fall, she attends a Christian Academy. Her school gave me a ridiculous list of supplies. Is it a typo, why does my daughter need 16 glue sticks, 8 regular and 8 large? Not to mention, she will have to start wearing a uniform. Boooooo! She's going to hate not wearing pink every day.  Khaki, tan, or blue are not her colors. My little diva.

June 17, 2011

I'm So Giddy

When I arrived at college, I was moving into the dorms, the very first thing I remember was this loud girl screaming and carrying a floor lamp. She had short hair with a thick bleached blonde streak at the front wearing Laguna flip flops. That was Heather. I remember some girls that were already tired of their parents helping them move in and wanted to go eat at 'The Jap Tree.' I couldn't afford to go eat anywhere. I didn't have parents helping me move in. I had one of my friends helping me. That was Micah.  They all had nice cars, I didn't even have a car. These girls had cell phones. I had a calling card I bought at Sam's. I was out of my elements. I was scared. I was scared at what college had in store for me, the two-a-days I had starting the next day, and if I would ever really fit in with these people.


Little did I know.


You talk about a crazy 5 years of college. If I could go back and do it all over again, I would in a heart beat! We partied, crammed for exams, went to practice, partied even harder, played our games and earned that scholarship, and partied hard! I'm not gonna lie, we were club rats. The difference in Panola and MSU was that at Panola we were country pumpkins that would go muddin' and completely make our own fun every night.

It never crossed my mind back then when I became friends with all my volleyball teammates that we would one day all be going back to where we came from. I mean it makes sense. We are all being recruited across the US to play volleyball. Not everybody lives in Fort Worth Texas, Brandi! My Kelli would be going back to Austin, get married, and live in Oklahoma.  Heather would marry, join the air force, and live in Japan. Erin would marry a pilot in the air force and become a nomad like Heather. Amanda would go back to Chicago and start her coaching/writing career. I did have one of my teammates stay here in Fort Worth, Amber.  We are the Hazbinz.


One of my dearest friends, Amanda, will be visiting me in less than two weeks to party and float the Guadalupe River with me. I can't wait to pick her up at the airport and bring her back to The Blackyard and talk and laugh. Don't get me wrong, I still stay in touch with all my old teammates, but when I get to see one AND party with them, I get really giddy.


Here's to RT'11...it's gonna be a good one!

June 13, 2011

Time is Money!

I slept in 'til 6:00am this morning! I made Jerry's lunch. I piddled around on the computer until Bailey woke up. I vacuumed the house. I started the dishwasher. I got laundry going. I swept the garage. Now I'm deciding what's the next productive thing I can do.  

I'm going to blame my early birdness on my Dad. I don't think I ever slept past 8:00am growing up before he would open the door and crow like a rooster and I don't mean the sweet 'kakadoodledo' sound. "Time to get up, roll over laundry" was the most common phrase he would wake me with. Jerry looked at me funny the first time I said 'roll over laundry.' Apparently that's not a term used by all. Back in my middle school days, I worked with my Dad a few summers laying glass block. 1.) I like being busy 2.) I hated being home 3.) I liked hanging with my Dad and trying to impress him with my mad mortar making skills 4.) I liked making money.  I made $5 bucks a day. It added up over the summer. I would make my Dad sign my little book each day where I would write the date, how many hours it took us, what we did that day, and had him initial under the $5. Apparently I didn't trust my Dad. We got up at 6:00am each morning, sometimes earlier, and we would be at the shop by 6:45 loading block, mortar, scaffold if needed, shims, spacers, plastic, wheel barrow, and other tools to get the job done. We never made a trip back to the shop, so we always took plenty of everything. On special occasions my Dad would swing by the donut shop. I would make our lunches and force him to take a break to eat his lunch. We would be at the job site before 7:30am, no matter what job or how far it was. I'm not kidding, sometimes we would get to the job before daylight. I remember those summers being hot and a lot of hard work. The loading and unloading 50lb bags of mortar, carrying boxes of glass block, mixing mortar until my arms felt like they were going to fall off, cleaning glass block until I had sores on the tips of my fingers made me a mentally and physically stronger person. I didn't know it back then, but now, I appreciate the work ethic my father instilled in me.

Which leads me to this, we have people fixing our fence and we are approaching 10am now. I think a good time to start a days work is no later than 8:00am, especially people that can control their own hours. I understand people that have no control. I worked at Home Depot for two years and my hours were 12-9pm all the time, partly because the scheduler hated me, but I was just buying my time. However,  if you do have control over your job, don't you want to hit it early, get the day over with, get the job done in a timely manner, and get paid quicker?  Hmm. Just a thought.

Time to roll over laundry.

June 07, 2011

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Everybody collects something or has a hobby. Or at least I hope so. I couldn't imagine not wanting something all the time or figuring out my next purchase. Ever since we moved in this house, I have been slowly finding stuff for my Blackyard here and there. I can't afford to get it all at once, nor can I find it all at once. I have made a list so I don't forget. I finally scratched the pot belly pig and Shetland Pony off that list.  Apparently, I was the only one who thought that would be a good idea. I have a rustic/cowboy/ranch theme going on.  Sadly, I enjoy decorating my Blackyard more than the inside of my house. I have a great time finding all these good finds. It's like a never ending mission for me. I feel accomplished each time I can scratch something off 'Momma's Want List.'

I will never forget the time My Lover and I were driving and I yelled, "STOP!" I wanted to stop at this junkyard. I found this rusty wheel barrow with one handle, I wanted! I dumped all the crap out of it and it started taking it to the truck.  Jerry walked away and said, "I don't even know you!" It was great. I found my wire spool that I use for a table there too. I love junkyards, they're the best! I love antique malls too, but he doesn't mind going into those at all.


Today, I finally found my vintage square galvanized wash tub with a stand and it has a ringer! This is the real deal, not the crap knock offs they make today to replicate the old ones. Legit! Jerry's grandfather has one and I hint to him everytime I'm over there that I sure would love to have it.  Haha Papaw, I got one now!


And I got a milk can that I am going to sand down and paint John Deere green on a hot summer night.


That whiskey barrel was a great find too! I found it behind a farmer's market and asked if I could have it. She sold it to me for $20 bucks. My rusty wheel barrow was Jerry's grandfather.  


I found this mirror for Bailey's vanity. I recovered that chair her Mama gave her too.


You just gotta keep your eyes open! Open yow eyes Shelby, open open yow eyes!

June 05, 2011

CHEW WITH YOUR MOUTH SHUT BRO!!!

Bailey had a T ball game Saturday morning, 'team' ball as she calls it. Grammy took the rug rat home with her after the game. That was que for Jerry and I to have a little date night. We went to Pappadeux and enjoyed some shrimp, lobster and king crab legs. We never eat sea food, so we splurged. We went down to the Stockyards and walked around, then finished the night with a movie.


You know what else we never do? GO TO THE MOVIES! It gets expensive, it's loud, I don't like people sitting that close to me, it's hard for me to sit still through an entire movie, I get annoyed at people that talk, I get aggrivated with kids that are too young to be out without any parental guidance, but I especially get annoyed with guys sitting next to me that CHEW THEIR POPCORN WITH THEIR MOUTH OPEN! Did his mother not teach him to chew with his mouth shut? My four year old chews food with her mouth closed, nor does she talk with food in her mouth. Can he not hear himself smacking? Is there really anything worst than smacking of food in one's mouth?


THEN,  his girlfriend sitting next to him laughed unbelievably loud, awful awful laugh, at parts that were not even remotely funny. (ex: She started laughing because the monkey was wearing a Rolling Stones jean jacket in the movie The Hangover II) See, it was ridiculous! Did she just want people to hear her? Is that her way of getting attention? Then she was on her phone the entire movie! I could see her lit up screen in my peripheral the entire time. I tried to move, but the theater was already packed. 


I'll stick to taking Bailey to movies and watching my movies on Netflix.