Beth's Baby Shower

So, my dear friend Beth is awaiting the arrival of her second child. Beth and I met online at the end of 2004, shortly after I had become a stay at home mom and just a few months before she became a mom. Her daughter Vivien, whose picture has appeared on this blog before, was born with a congenital heart defect. She's quite a little fighter. Since witnessing her daughter go through 2 open heart surgeries before the age of one, Beth has become a pretty awesome advocate for CHD awareness.

There's a lot more to Beth and her family though. She has great hair--ALWAYS!! And when I say great hair--I mean this girl used to be a Toni & Guy hair model. She also is a collector of beautiful body art, and was the one who recommended Nick to me for my tattoo. So, that's a little summary of the outside..Then there's the inside which coincides quite nicely with her lovely exterior. She has been an amazing friend to me over the past four years. She is so smart and well spoken. In fact, she just received her bachelor's degree in December and is having a study she completed published in an academic journal. Pretty cool, huh? Did I mention how giving she is? Ughhhh. She's got a heart of gold.

So, all of this to say..I cannot wait to meet her son. Beth and her husband have decided to keep his name a secret until his arrival so we have all just been referring to him as "DGBB". When Vivien found out she was going to be a big sister, she asked Beth if they could name the baby Dora Grace Big Bird. So, the name has kind of stuck. I'm sure he'll appreciate it someday. LOL! Her baby shower was a blast. Our friend Susan was so kind to open her home up to all of us, despite having a newborn at home to take care of. It seems like just a few posts ago, I was blogging about her baby shower. (You won't believe how big and sweet that baby of hers is now.)

A henna artist came and painted Beth's beautiful belly, and there was tons of yummy food. The best part though was the company. I had a great time laughing and talking with all of our friends.

Susan and Wyatt (the mama and baby from the last shower I attended)

Party poopers. (lol!)

The finished henna art.

Beth, Me, & Amba

And just in case anyone reading this doesn't have baby fever...Check out these pics!

The Treyhound Weasel Boy is Here...

Well, what a great week this has been! Thanks for all the thoughts, prayers and hugs that were sent our way. It really helped.

So, I picked up my little brother Trey on Tuesday to come hang out with us for a few days. It's been so nice having him around. He definitely rates up there on the super cool Uncle scale, being that he's only 14.

Trey brought over his video game Rockband, and the kids have all had a blast jammin' out. Hunter has been wanting to play the drums for a few years now, so this game is like pure Heaven for him. The kids were great about all taking turns on the instruments, and also letting Grace participate. I think they may be ready to take their show on the road in another week or so.

Tuesday afternoon, I took Trey and the kids to Lakeland Hills Park in Dallas. I am so excited to have found this place. It's only about 10 minutes from our house and the kids had a blast. Not only does it have a FREE skatepark, but it also has a really nice playground.

I threw this pic in so you could see the playground.

Tuesday evening, Wes stopped and picked up the Owen's boys on his way home from work so they could come hang out for a few hours. When Don and Shirley got here to pick them up, all three boys decided they wanted to spend the night. They played Rockband, jumped on the trampoline, and played football--in the rain. They seemed to have a lot of fun, and each ate their weight in pizza before the night was over.





Wednesday, we all slept in. The boys ran around acting crazy for a while. Around 1:00, I loaded up all the kids (there were 6 total), and headed over to Charis' house. They all swam for a little bit. I left the Owen's boys there with their mom, and headed home so Grace could get a nap and Hunter and Trey could have some downtime. Around 5:30, me and the clan headed back out. We stopped to pick up Dillon and Derrick (Owens boy #2, and #3), and went to Vanston pool to swim. I'm nervous about taking my camera up there, so no pics right now. However, if anybody has an extra $230 laying around and wants to buy me this camera, I would REALLY love to have it! http://www.everyprice.com/item.asp?item_Id=204728 Some of my friends have been getting the coolest underwater pics of their kids this Summer, and frankly I'm a little jealous. Of course, I do LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my camera, but I'm REALLY nervous with it around water. Anyways, that's what's been goin' on this week. I'll post more later.

White Trash Wednesday #12

This picture was given to me by someone in one of my mom's groups. I about died laughing when I first saw it. First, it took me back to 1986. I can remember my own mother driving me to school sporting a similar look. My friend Mel, pointed out to me that this ladies kids must have really pissed her off for her to take them to a public park looking like this. I hope that was the case. If it was, I totally commend her. I may try this same tactic myself. The next time one of my kids embarrasses me by showing their ass in public, I'll get them back 10 folds with some pink sponge rollers. That'll teach 'em!

Sword Swallowing & A New York 4th

So, first I've got to show a few funny pics of Hunter. He busted his lip on Monday and banged his nose a little bit too. He used to do this all the time when he was around 1 or 2. He was pigeon toed pretty bad back then and would trip over his own feet. It was pitiful. This time he was just goofin around on a trampoline with some friends and ran into one of them. I definitely don't think collagen injections are anything that Hunter should look into. LOL!

On Tuesday, Demaris came over. We hung out on the front porch that evening, eating push-ups and just spending time together. After that, we headed inside to watch America's Got Talent. Then we all took a turn trying to swallow sword like one of the contestants on the show.



Here's the original sword swallower if you wanna check him out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-GgyXMOJf0

On Wednesday I took the kids (Hunter, Grace, and Demaris) to Vanston pool in Mesquite. Demaris had never been before, and my kids had only been once. Starting at 5:00, admission is 1/2 price. It was the perfect time of day to go. It wasn't too crowded and the kids had fun on the water slides.

On Thurday, I met up with Angie (Wes' ex) and picked Hudson up to come spend the night. The Moore's came by later that evening, and we were really happy to be able to introduce him to some of our friends that had never met him.

Friday was the 4th of July. Wes' friend, New York Pete, that he works with at Verizon had invited our family to come hang out at their home in Allen. Pete and his wife Patty were gracious hosts. They welcomed us into their beautiful home and had an abundance of food and drinks to offer. Patty's family was in town from New York and her Colombian mother made some of the best rice I've ever eaten. She also made some pretty dad gum good potato salad. Wes always jokes around about Pete being "made". Many of our friends know that we are HUGE Soprano's fans. We have seen every episode and actually only had HBO at one point for the very purpose of watching the Soprano's. Okay, so the other Soprano's fans that read this blog will get a kick out of this. Can I tell you how excited we were to meet Patty's brother. He is a manager at a gentlemen's establishment in New York, and had come along with his new wife, who is from the Ukraine. How freakin' Soprano's is that? They were a super nice couple, and I loved just listening to every one's accents while we hung out. I didn't get too many pictures, but here are a few.

The picture below is of devil juice. It is Cuervo Gold tequila, with pineapple slices. It had been marinating for 2 days, though I'm told that 2 weeks is the optimum amount of time to let it marinate. Tequila in general gets me SUPER drunk and SUPER sick. One shot of it is enough to make me puke. Well, Patty made me take a shot of it with her (which was the only drink I had all day), and let me tell you.. It was GOOD!!! It did not taste like tequila. Wes had 1/2 a shot (also his only drink for the day) and was convinced this stuff was made by the devil. You could easily end up the morning after drinking this in a foreign country and not know how you got there. I'll definitely have to make some of this in the future.


So, that was our week in a nutshell. A really small nutshell. Overall, Wes and I had a pretty craptastic week due to some troubles in some friendships of ours. Our hearts are hurting and our bodies are longing for a good night's sleep. I know our kids have sensed the sadness and the tension in our home, but are unaware of what is really going on. Please just send some good thoughts, vibes or prayers our way. We have truly felt blessed this past year to find our village, and it now seems to be crumbling down at our feet. If you could just send up some thoughts for peace and resolution, it would mean a lot to me.