That time of year....

I will have to take a moment here and give accolades to my husband's photog skills...cause he's got them!  Although every now and then I hit the nail on the head and luck into a good shot.  As my luck would have it, it's usually a pic of him.  (Yay Me) So I did it again here...in my opinion.  And the lighting outside certainly played a major role, then again it is hard to take a bad pic when the subject is so strikingly handsome. 
We did our Christmas Card pics at the barn in Southlake this year.  We always have fun.  There is not much too serious about our camera time.  Except Brandon trying to not laugh in just about every pic I take!  You can see that here if you look.  He is trying hard to not burst out laughing at me. 

Anyway on point....this is one of my favorite times of year.  Not that there any times of year I truly dislike.  I have a hard time fitting in ALL the things I want to do with the kids and for the kids.  I realize that the most important thing is being together, being at peace and loving one another.  There will always be another year to decorate the Gingerbread Houses, there are plenty of lights to drive around and see, there are tons of cookies in our future to decorate, Santa will always be there waiting for us to take our pic with him and they will NEVER run out of toys for me to buy.  So this year I am sitting back relaxing, enjoying the season, looking forward to new traditions, not worrying about what we did not get to do.  Most of all I look forward to sitting down and reading the story of Baby Jesus in Luke tomorrow night and telling Bradford about his Christmas Day Christening when he was 6 weeks old.  (And of course we will make Santa's cookies) For now
Good Night to all and to all a new year...

Dead Dad's Club

I made my way to The Mama Mary Show by way of Ooph! Well on Friday, but my weekend was pretty busy, so Mama Mary has remained at the bottom of my computer since then. (Yes I am one of those that NEVER shuts down my computer) Today when I had some surfing time I opened her blog and the words flashed in NEON at me. For those of you not in THE CLUB she is referring to you may not have noticed the words. And if you had you probably wouldn't click on them for fear something bad would happen!


I, of course clicked. What did I have to loose? At this exact moment in time I am saddened to say I would need to use both hands and a foot to count how many friends I have who would do the same. Without hesitation. I love that Mama Mary uses the infamous Grey's line as her opening header:

“There’s a Dead Dad’s Club and you’re not in it ‘til you’re in it…..I’m sorry you had to join the club.”

Dr. Christina Yang – “Grey’s Anatomy”

More so I love that Mama Mary has written a compilation book of stories from other Club Members. Crazy thing is this is something that I have been thinking about doing myself. I have talked at length with my sweet friend Victoria, also 20 veteran in this Club about this book idea. Mary is still shopping for a publisher so once this book hits the press; I will have a couple on hand. Not that I want any more members in our Club, but truth is Life is Inevitable!

Past, Present and Pictures

Last week was a whirlwind. Helped my sweet friend Kelli with her fundraiser for China, greatness at the office, and walked down memory lane with about 35-40 of my closest friends from high school and their significant others! I have been photographed on the "Red Carpet", photographed in the Stockyards, photographed while sweating, laughing and pouting. I even cropped myself out of some pictures. It is no coincidence this post will contain NO photos!
I can say personally last week was a success. There are some things in life I over-commit to and I still need to polish the art of saying "No Thanks." Although ALL event of last week were top priorities and I would do them again and again! Speaking of: We will be doing The Ultimate Girls Night Out again in the future. You are going to LOVE the next movie. I promise.
Our reunion event on Saturday made me kind of nostalgic for old friendships. In the last 4 days I have traded emails with two of my favorite Jr High and High School friends. Some things in life are just too good to leave in the past. As we usually realize too late or on a sad note: Life is short! Live it, Love it and Enjoy it!

Beach Trip

Circa: Feb 2010

I am hosting our book club next month so I picked Beach Trip by Cathy Holton as our book. Boy-oh-boy what a pick. What a book! While I am not 20+ years out of college yet, I am almost 20 years out of high school. So this book still rang loudly in my ears...maybe inside the hollows of my brain too! A couple of the main takeaways were "Would we be friends today if we had not know each other so well when we were growing up?" and "How well do we really know people? Even our BEST FRIENDS? What do we keep even from them?"

I remember telling my friend Lysh a few years ago that we were destined to always be friends because we knew too much about one another to be enemies! Keep em close right? One night last year she, my husband and I were at dinner and afterwards, my husband comment he was surprised at how well she really knew me! All that from some off-handed comment about me in high school?? Great. No matter how hard I try to stay hidden and not wear my heart/personality/inner-most-thoughts on my sleeve, I seemed to be failing at that one! (Blogging helps, right?) I am telling you I am a deep dark person that none of you truly knows you just don’t know it!

Back on point, as of today I got to talk via emails with another of my favorite high school friends. Oh man, this girl and I passed more notes in A&P Class than I can count. And YIKES the topics were slightly, in a 17 year old way scandalous! Let me tell you catching up with her has made me absolutely giddy all day today. I have made some amazing adult friends in my life, although nothing can replace those girls that slumber partied with you, TP-ed houses with you(who's mom's drove you to TP houses), who oogled boys with you, fought with you, refuse to speak to you for months, stole clothes from you or vise versa, who threw up in your car before your own kids did, and made you who you are today!

So happy 20th Amy! See you tomorrow night and here's to my 20th next year! I know you all will be there with me. Love ya!

Ham bone

HAM BONE: Always hamming it up!  My kids for sure. 

I have no enlighting story for you today.  No big adventures....Nothing earth shattering....But boy do I love my life!  Seriously, I am in the lead for the cutest boys EVER, I am certain.  And man oh man, I have an amazing husband.  Quite sweet actually.  Bradford orchestrated a family concert last night.  Dad played the guitar, Bradford played the bongos and sang.  He was very "Type A" with his organization of it all...who sat where, what you sat in, then he brought his nite lamp from his room to shine on himself and his Dad while they performed.  Can we say spotlight?  And yes the questioning has begun already...A new American Idol Season and "When do we get to go there and watch them sing Mom?"  I feel a trip in my near future...He has been asking to go to American Idol for almost 2 years now!  Berkeley was creating chaos everywhere he went during the concert, not wanting to sit where his big brother told him...hmmm I see other things in my future too....