Finally Back Home

For the past month, we have been living with my parents in Arlington while Lane has been working in the ER at JPS hospital in Ft Worth. The month has flown by! We stopped by Lane's mom's house in Whitney on our way back & stayed the night. We had a relaxing time swimming & riding around on the golf cart. Elliot had fun swinging & playing in the little pool.

The last 2 pictures are outside a little soda fountain in Whitney. I have been trying to get Lane to stop there for the past 3 years & he would always say "next time". Then it went out of business. But to my delight, they opened back up & I made him pull the car over. I just think it's the cutest place.

Project Mom & Dad #2

I didn't even plan on tackling this project, but the opportunity presented itself. Here is my parents' living room before paint. I should have taken the picture before we moved everything to the middle.

Here it is after. Now I can't take full credit for the paint job. We hired someone to paint the walls because we have 2 that are super high & impossible to do on our own. The color is called Gray Timberwolf. On the little color swatch it looked more gray with maybe a hint of blue. But on the walls it's blue. My mom refuses to call it blue, but either way it looks way better than it did before.

Now what I will take credit for are the curtains and all the woodwork in the living room, including the fireplace. I repainted it all white. I didn't realize how much woodwork we actually have. It took me FOREVER. In the top picture you can see part of the banister. It has wooden poles that I had to do & that was really tedious. I will also take credit for convincing my parents to hire a painter. It's been about 15 years since they painted the walls & now things look fresh.

I look 20...

...According to the kid at Quiznos. I know his credibility isn't much, but I'll take it!

I had E in my arms & he asked if she was my kid. I replied yes. He then asked my age. I said 27. Then he looked stunned & said I look like I'm 20. Sadly, I lit up like a Christmas tree I was so flattered. Give me a break though. Lately I feel like I look beaten down chasing after Elliot all the time. She is definitely in her SQUIRMY stage & won't sit still for a second. Especially when you go to 3 hours of church & try keeping her contained. That day I took a 2 hour nap to recover.

Hurricane Harbor

Lane had the day off today & suggested that we go to Hurricane Harbor. I was not totally on board with this idea at first. I probably haven't been there since high school & even back then it was a bit trashy. Well, I had a change of heart & decided that I needed to get some sun, so off we went. We had to rent a locker to put our stuff in. We thought we were prepared with a ton of quarters, but it ended up being $12! I was only thinking it would be $5. That's how they make their money I guess. We had a great time riding all the tube rides. Those are my favorite. One observation that I made was the number of people with tattoos. I was shocked at the big, ugly tattoos that almost everyone had. Our favorite was this guy who had grilling utensils on the back of both of his arms...classy.

Fossil Rim

Personalize your own photo slideshow We visited Fossil Rim in Glenrose, TX today. I highly recommend this place. Elliot just loved the animals, which was surprising since she's never seemed to care about them at the zoo. Maybe it was because they came up to your car when you fed them. In fact, I know that's what it was. Anyway, we had a nice time driving through and checking out different animals. The ostrich was pretty fun. I got a little worried there for a minute because he was trying to stick his head into our window. I was afraid he would peck us, so I rolled it up!

Elliot Time

Lately I've felt like Elliot hasn't gotten to do anything just for her. So Lane & I took her to the mall to play at the kids spot. I hate that place because there's too many people, but she loves it & that's all that matters. Before we left, we decided to let her try out the carousel. I had no idea if she would like it, but these pictures speak for themselves.

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Walking Practice

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My Dog the Escape Artist

As I'm sitting in bed reading I hear this noise coming from the kitchen. So I get up to investigate. It's my dog, Winnie. Well I guess technically she is my parents' dog, though they don't claim her. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take her with me when I got married. Anyway, she is trying to squeeze through the gate we have up between the kitchen & living room. If you notice, they even have one of her old collars locked around the gate to secure it. I get her situated & return to my room. Five minutes later I hear the same noise. Bless her heart, she never gives up. I waste no time & grab my camera. Here she is, caught in action.

Project Mom & Dad #1

While we're staying with my parents for a while, I have all these projects in my head that I want to do around their house. The house is as old as I am & I have lived in it from age 1 up to age 24, when I got married. I don't think many people can say that about their childhood home. Needless to say I have many great memories there & would love to get it back to where it once was. Since I nor my parents are made of money, we're sticking to simple things that will make a huge difference...aka...paint. And the first thing we did was turn my old bedroom in the basement from this:


That's right. I had stripes & polka dots on my wall. And I used all 70s colors. I did that piece of work when I was in high school & thought it was the coolest thing ever. I have to admit, that I still like those colors & it was a bit sad painting over them. But the finished product was a little more mature & pleasing to the eye.

Now it looks like this:

Simple & clean. I am really happy with the end product. It's so light & airy. The blue looks lighter in person than it does in the picture. So that's 1 project down & thousands to go!

4th of July Weekend

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The past 2 days we've been in Whitney with Lane's mom & Rich. A lot of Lane's family were there. My parents came along. We had so much fun hanging out with everyone & eating. We stayed in a condo on Lake Whitney & it was so relaxing. They had a fireworks show & all we had to do was go out on our patio. So nice! We were for sure the fireworks would wake up Elliot, but somehow she managed to sleep right through it. We went out on the boat & did some knee boarding. Well, everyone but me, Kate & Eryn. I'm more of a tube person. I actually just prefer to stay in the boat & get a tan. But the guys of course all took turns. And then there was Lexi who put everyone to shame with her mad skills. I was a really bad picture taker, because half the people we hung out with this weekend are not in any of the photos. Elliot played so hard. She got to hang out with Vinny. He's only 2 days younger than her. We also went to a nearby park where she had a blast swinging & going down the slide. She was so tired that she passed out on Lane. Good times were had by all.

Arlington Parade

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Today we went to the Arlington Parade. I haven't been in forever & have always loved going. It looked like it was going to rain the entire time, but it was perfect. There was a little breeze & we had front row seats. It was a great time.