Ten: a favourite word

This was tough for me, hence my delay in posting. I almost just skipped it...ahh, the pressure in only ONE word! For the sake of not being lame, my chosen word is patience.

Patience, not because I'm any good at it, but because it is a constant thought/struggle/goal of mine. Patience is required on a daily basis in some manner. I strive for patience in many ways:

-Patience with the dumb people that work in our accounting center and make my job a nightmare at times...lately more often than it should.

-Patience with my life and where I think it should be versus where God has planned for it to be. He constantly proves to me why His way is better, so I'm in constant acknowledgement that I should trust and wait for His 'perfect timing'.

-Patience with my family when they may not 'get' something that I explain through a text or phone conversation. Sometimes, just maybe, I am not as clear in my explanation of things as I think I am.

-Patience with my friends when they help guide or direct me in a way that is only through the best of intentions. It may not always be the way I had initially planned, but more times than not, their way may be a better way or an unbiased interpretation that I should listen to.

-Patience with Brandon as we develop an amazing relationship more and more every day. God made men and women very different for a reason, sometimes I need to take a step back and keep my patience as we work through those differences.

-Patience with my constant attempt at weight loss. I know I'm healthy and in decent shape. I need to understand that I'm no longer in my 'younger' years and have teenage hips...and never will I again. I need to believe Brandon when he constantly reminds me that he thinks I'm beautiful and he loves me for me.

Patience is a daily goal of mine. My life is absolutely amazing. I am blessed beyond imagination with a multitude of things to be grateful for...a good job, friends and family that I wouldn't trade for anything, a boyfriend that treats me like the #1 priority, and a healthy lifestyle.

Nine: something you do everyday

Is this really too much to ask?!

I know that I shouldn't weigh myself every day but it's sort of become an addiction. It can either start me off in the right mood to keep me motivated throughout the day but it can also frustrate me and make me want to say 'Screw it. Excerise and Healthy eating do me NO GOOD!' Ha! I also know how badly my weight can fluctuate from day to day so it's not smart to let the dumb scale determine my mood, but I can't help it. I need to know! Here's my picture for the day...cracks me up. I should take the warning seriously.

Eight: A Smell You Adore

Wow, I love good smelling things...babies, perfume, candles, clean laundry, freshly baked cookies but one smell I adore is Brandon's cologne...Armani Code. I melt over a yummy smelling boy...this particular boy!

Seven: Someone that Inspires You

Wow, this one is tough for me. I have a lot of very inspirational people in my life...both friends and family. Right now, the first that comes to mind is Mica. We all know how hard it is to lose weight and stay on a diet and work out regularly. Take all that and balance it with a family, a full-time job, being room mom, planning a destination wedding and continuously being a supportive friend...Mica is kicking butt in all areas of her life. Over the last several weeks she has been on a hard-core change of lifestyle by eating healthier and starting a running program. She got us all involved in a healthy competition and even though she is winning it by a landslide, it has kept us all motivated and accountable for everything we eat or drink and each time we want to skip our daily workout. I may not win a pot of money but I have lost a few lbs that I've been trying over a year to lose...that is worth more to me right now than anything. Mica inspires me to want to maintain this weight loss (slowly but surely) and keep working out. She also just inspired me (by her immediate 'let's do this' attitude) to run our first mud run together in June. Lord help us!

We may double the 'average time' but I can guarantee that we will walk (or be carried) away with many laughs and amazing memories! Let's do this!

Six: You

Here is a pic of me and MY NEW PURSE! Woohoo...my mom is the greatest! She went all out and surprised me with my very own Louis Vuitton. Wow. I was sick to my stomach when I opened it...holy expensive! She knows I love these bags but would never (well maybe not 'never'...but definitely not any time soon...maybe when I have 4 kids and can still afford to eat) purchase one of these for myself. On the last couple of girls trips to NYC, we've looked for fake ones that satisfy our 'high fake designer' standards and so far, no such luck! Anyway, I have been waiting to post this blog for a few days until I could get a good pic of me and my new ONE.BIG.SPLURGE. I taught my momma how to manage these splurges well...she just forgot that you are supposed to splurge on yourself and not someone else!! :)

Thank you Mom for my amazing surprise...I love it and I love you!!

Five: Bird

What? Bird? I've got nothing...

I tried to capture a pic of a hummingbird sitting on my dad's feeder but never saw one. I don't have much patience for it...but it's kinda cool when they do come up. So here's the feeder...use your imagination for the bird. :)

Four: Fun

I went to Waco this weekend for a quick trip but some GREAT girl time with my mom and Megan. We had so much fun shopping and hanging out...very relaxing trip. Megan cracks me up though. I'm not sure if it's well past the time she should be 'over' this baby doll thing but she's not. And we have now become VERY serious about how this 'real' baby needs to be treated. Even so much as needing to be strapped up in her 'carseat' in the car as we go anywhere. It's almost kinda annoying but being the fun aunt kellie that I am...I make 'fun' with it.

K: Megan, I hired a babysitter to stay at home with Lauren today. She doesn't need to go with us this time.
M: No you didn't, I don't see her.
K: Well duh, we are already in the car now. She was on the back porch waiting for you to bring the baby out. That's kinda rude. I mean I already paid for her, and now you've wasted my money.
M: Well, where was her car?
K: It was in the front of the house, you just missed it.
M: Was it a black tahoe?
K: No, that is my car, duh.
M: Does she drive a red smart car?
K: Uhm no...that's PaPa's car.
M: Well what does she drive?
K: She drives a navy blue mustang. She's cool. You missed out.

20 minutes later:

K: Leave her in the car, we are just running in for a minute.
M: Fine.
K: You know it's child abuse to leave your baby in the hot car like that.
M: What is child abuse?
K: It's when you are mean to your children and do things to hurt them. Like leaving them in the car when it's 90 degrees out. You could go to jail for that.

Haha, I could go on all day...and I did. :)

Three: Something I wore

Brandon always jokes about being 1 inch away from not being given a chance with me. He is 5'11 and I am 5'10 and I prefer guys 'taller' than me...I definitely wouldn't date a guy shorter than me...so he barely made the cut. ;)

But, with us being so close in height, I won't really wear my heels when we are together...which is just making me lazy to never want to wear them to work anymore either. The pic of the shoes below have become one of my faves. They go with just about anything. The color is pewter and can pretty much look brown, bronze, gray...which makes them AWESOME. I am on the lookout in these type of shoes in any color...cute, flat sandals...so let me know if you see any I need to check out. I'm afraid I'm going to wear these out!

Two: Skyline

Last weekend, was a busy weekend for me. April is a quarter close month which means I have to work most of the weekend (1/2 day Saturday and all day Sunday). Saturday morning started about 6:30am so that I could get online and get my stuff done in order to make it to Drew's 2nd birthday bash at the zoo at 10:30 (shout out to the Anderson's for a great party as always!!). I love the zoo. I've never been to the Dallas zoo so I was very excited to go...although I did not make it to my favorite section (the African safari area...I love giraffes, zebras, lions, elephants...and I have no idea why but they fascinate me) but I got to spend plenty of time in the Reptile area (shout out to the Lyle boys and their fascinations!) which happens to be Brandon's favorite as well. Who knew?! 

We decided to leave around 2ish, grab some lunch and head to Kathy's house. Matt and Kathy were out of town most of the week and weekend so I 'offered' to pool sit for them! :) This white girl needs a tan. We head to Cabo in 3 weeks (#notswimsuitready) so we decided to lay out in the pool and soak up some rays. Yes, I used sunscreen and no Mica, no oil...for now. It was AWESOME. Kathy's backyard is absolutely perfect. We spent the afternoon floating in the pool, enjoying life and each other and working on our tan. It was so relaxing. The evening was beautiful so we decided stay and make dinner on the grill. We hit up Central Market and an hour later we were making all kinds of yummy goodness...red snapper topped with fresh crabmeat, grilled veggies, spinach dip and one of our favorite bottles of red wine. It was amazing. I took this picture of our meal and our view as we sat outside, enjoying our 'skyline' for the evening. Big thanks to Matt and Kathy for letting us enjoy some pool time and have a perfect Saturday night during a crazy busy week.

One: Peace

I loved this when I saw it. It really does put me at peace to know and believe that by God's grace everything in our lives will turn out just as they should. We may go through ups and downs, happiness and heartaches, good times and tough times...but knowing that God is with us every step of the way and always has a bigger, better plan for us...that gives me peace.

Here we go....

Because May isn't busy enough for me already...I've been 'challenged' to another Photo A Day...and of course, I can't say no and be 'upstaged' by my blogging besties so here we go...AGAIN!!

Easter = 2 celebrations!

Happy Easter! One year ago from Easter Sunday, a ‘new guy’ walked into my house and little did I know how much this guy would mean to me exactly one year later! Brandon and I met when I had an Easter potluck lunch at my house for all the singles in town with no family in 2011. Brandon had only lived in Dallas at that point for a few months and at church that morning, one of our mutual guy friends randomly invited him to my house for lunch. Brandon showed up not knowing anyone but that one guy (and the guy was about an hour late getting there). Brandon being the ‘never met a stranger’ type of personality walked in, introduced himself and got to know everyone. He claims to have been VERY interested in me from that day we met. He asked around about me later but was told I was dating someone else so he never pursued me. Jump ahead a few months and I see a pic of him tagged on facebook, I think, ‘hey, I know that guy and I haven’t seen him around in months!’. So I friended him on fb and we started chatting immediately that afternoon…and he asked me out for the next night (August 14)…and things have been AMAZING since the first date.

So, last weekend, Easter Sunday we celebrated our 1 year of ‘meeting each other’ anniversary! We had a wonderful day just hanging out, cooking and being productive around the house. We went to early service at church, grocery store and then we made all kinds of food for the day and for my lunches the following week. I did laundry while he ‘mowed’ and we both watched the grill. That grill is our favorite!! We made steak and potatoes for lunch and then chicken/veggies for dinner and my lunch. Plus we tried out a new recipe for homemade guacamole which was fantastic!! We ate the entire thing that day….we love us some food!! What a perfect day…celebrating our Savior and the blessing of each other all in the same day. I can’t wait for many more Easters together…hopefully with a few Easter eggs involved in the future!

Getting it all prepared!

 

Let the grilling begin!

Brandon mowing his itty bitty lawn!

One Tough Mudder!

A couple of weeks ago, Brandon and his roommate signed up for and completed a race called the Tough Mudder...absolute insanity! It is a hardcore 12 miles of obstacle courses designed by British Special Forces to "test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie". It's craziness. Brandon loves to challenge himself like this and this was the ultimate test for his endurance...and he surpassed and LOVED it. You should google it and watch the videos but the obstacles include stuff like electrical wires hanging down that you have to run through not knowing which ones are live and which aren't (Brandon hit one and before he knew what had happend, he was lying face first in the mud)...run through huge dumpster type things full of ice up to your waist that you have to wade through and then dive down to get under large obstruction in your way to get to the other side to climb out (Brandon said he was completely numb and it took him a few minutes to be able to breathe normally again)...run through fire pits, over hay bales...15-20 obstacles of this type of pain. Uhm, no thanks. Proud of my boy...but I'll watch from the sidelines!!

I didn't get to go to this one because I had to work the day he did it...but we did get one pic emailed to us from the race photographers. Crazy kid!!

Grill Master

A couple of months ago, Brandon and I were running errands and he said, ‘Hey, let’s go look at grills…just for fun’. ha! Brandon doesn’t like to shop unless he’s going to ‘buy’ so I knew what I was walking into but I decided to just go with it. Brandon and I are very different from this perspective. I am very indecisive, especially when it comes to big purchases so I tend to shop around, take pics, compare prices and stress a little (or a lot!) over it until I drive myself crazy and then make Lisa go with me at lunch to make the final decision! Brandon…not so much. This idea comes to Brandon, we walk into Home Depot, we look at the grills in stock for about 15 minutes and we make a purchase and roll our new grill out to the truck. Done. I was hesitant and wanted to protest but I didn’t and I haven’t regretted that purchase for one minute! Technically, he bought it but I ‘let’ him! ;)

Brandon loves to cook (and grill even more) and I love to let him. We have used that grill on average about 5 days a week at least. We love it. All food just tastes so much better on the grill…we grill everything! Plus, it was a nice little ‘team building’ experience as we opened the box of about 10,000 pieces and spent Saturday night putting it together! It's a win-win all around!

Brandon is proud of that grill...he is the grill master for sure!!

Not only does food taste amazing on the grill...but it's also helping us to eat a lot healthier which is great for my weight-loss competition right now!!

Grilled chicken, bell peppers and carrots with a salad on the side...yum!!

Grilled salmon and asparagus...so pretty and tasty!!

Day Thirty One: You, Again

Today's post is Me, Again...this time in dedication to my 'future'. You all know my mom...and you all know how nice, thoughtful, caring, sweet...and a little 'nutty' this Nonie can be! Besides the fact that I occasionally have too much of my daddy's hard-headed, stubborn, "I'm always right" ways...I am sometimes a lot like all the things I make fun of my mom. Let's face it, I don't like to admit it, but we all have our 'nutty' moments and I only hope that I can be exactly like my momma in the future!!