A couple of weeks ago we went to Baton Rouge for our nephew Charles’ baptism. This was the first time Griff and I have meet this sweet little chubster, since he waited to be born until after we left BR for Thanksgiving break last year. Charles is such a sweet baby, so happy ALL time… unless he’s hungry, but who isn’t a bit cranky when your belly’s yelling at you?
He was such a good boy at his baptism. He didn’t fuss one bit and the entire congregation just ooh’d and ahh’d over him! Afterwards a couple members of the choir came over and told Brian and Noelle just how beautiful their family is and and how they wanted to take Charles home with them. Too cute!
I’m tellin’ you, this baby is uber chill. And he loved sitting in my lap! OK, he loves sitting on any ones lap, but whatever, I can dream.
Afterwards, we went to Ninfa’s for lunch. I love Ninfa’s because I love Mexican food but mainly cause they have the best margarita’s! Mmmmmmmm!
Sister Renee got some gifts too, her tiara! This girl is just about the cutest darn thing ever!
Brian’s good friend Mark was there with his wife Rebecca and their adorable son Jackson. Every time I took a picture of Renee I asked her to say cheese. About the 3rd time I did this I hear Jackson yell CHEESE!!! So I just had to take a picture of him too. He has those cheeks you just want to pinch and smother with about a BA-gillion giant kisses! MUAH!!!!!
After Ninfa’s we went back to Griff’s Mom’s house to gather our things and drive to Mandeville were Brian and Noelle live. When we arrived we immediately got into the pool because, well because it is darn hot in the South! Sadly we had to leave the next day, Monday, and drive back to Texas but before we did that we stopped at Wally World to help Noelle return some GIANT outdoor chair cushions and Renee and I stopped to smell the flowers. I just love this girl!
OMG!! It’s here and it’s every bit as beautiful as we thought it would be! While we think that the The Knot Texas magazine peeps could have chosen better pics, {like the ones we took in the coin laundry mat across the street, or the funny group wedding party pics we took with our crazy friends}, we love it just the same! We are in a freakin’ magazine for cryin’ out loud!!!! I’ll say it again, O-M-G!!!
I got my 6 copies, copy of The Knot Texas at Wal-Mart cause technically I don’t think they are supposed to be out yet cause I couldn’t find it at Barnes & Noble, or Borders Books. This is what the magazine cover looks like and we are on pages 54-60. I Google searched for a picture of the cover and came up with nada. Guess it’s too new. I could get up off the couch, {from under the blanket}, get the camera, take a picture of the magazine sitting on my coffee table, then walk across the room to get the camera cord from out of my purse, then walk back to the couch, plug the cord into the computer, download the picture, then post it here. But that just sounds like a lot of work I’m not willing to do right now. Capish? Anyway, the cover is blue and in the bottom left hand corner make sure it says “Display until August 2”. If you find a green cover that says “Display until May 31”, well that my friends is the wrong one. I might have made this mistake, Mom too.
A GIANT thank you to my sweet friend, {and wedding photographer}, Sherry over at Sherry Hammonds Photography and my sweet friend, {and wedding planner}, Becky over at BZ Events for submitting our wedding to The Knot Texas magazine. To even be considered is amazing but to be chosen is utterly astonishing! Thank you guys so much for everything! Y’all made our wedding everything we ever wanted. And to my sweet Daddy & Momma, thank you for allowing this magical day to happen and for letting your Punkin’ Head have her day. I love you both all the way to God and back.
Since moving to Cedar Park, a town just north of Austin, I have been wondering when we would live up to the hillbilly reputation this town has. Well last week, I came home to this… a tractor parked in my back yard. Yup, we’ve arrived, call Jed Clampett and Daisy May and tell em’ to take it back to Beverly Hills. Griff was able to finagle a guy from work into lending us his tracker with an auger so we could dig the holes for the posts for the fence we are building. Our backyard is fenced on 2 sides and with 2 doggies we need a fence all around our property. Plus I’m a fan of my privacy, if I wanna walk around in nothing but my skives, I should be able to with out worrying about my British neighbor sneaking a peek, ya know? I was getting my hair did so I wasn’t able to get “action” pics of the men being men. Instead I came home to these men having a toast to themselves for a job well done. Again a BIG thanks to Wyatt for helping us get these holes dug. It helps having a friend who’s a general contractor, and is willing to donate his time, I’m just saying’.
Once the tractor left, Wyatt and Griff, made use of the hand held post hole digger. {Our backyard is mainly rock upon boulders, upon rock, upon rock, hence the need for the tractor.} Nice boots n’ shorts Wyatt. What? I think it’s a good look.
Mom came up the weekend before last and she was a BIG help! She came in Thursday night and while we were at work Friday she finished unpacking all the kitchen boxes, finished lining all the kitchen cabinet shelves with shelf paper, and helped us paint over the hideous blue walls in the kitchen. And she brought Mom and Dad’s sweet little addition to the family… meet Lila! She just the cutest thing ever! I want to just eat her up!
After our dear sweet Sonora past it was evident to everyone that Mom and Dad needed another puppy. There was question as to whether they should get another yellow lab, but it was decided that because there will only ever be one Sonora, another yellow lab would be just fine. Everyone is so happy with Lila, she is a puppy however, and with puppies come the learning curve. But she is getting it; she can already sit and stay, which is more than I can say for some adult doggies. OK, a couple more pictures of Lila playing with Charley and Eva. She has no idea she is less than half their size.
I do have fond memories of the original movie The Karate Kid but when you live with Daniel Son it’s a little different. Like when he asks me to do things like “paint the fence” or “wax on, wax off”. I know he’s glad he doesn’t have to listen to Mr. Miyagi anymore and he finally gets to tell someone else to do these things, but come on! OK, all jokes aside. I don’t really get told these things but I do live with the Karate Kid.
Griff got his blue belt in Brazilian Ju Jitzu!! I am so proud of him! A blue belt can take anywhere from 6 months to 4 years to achieve, depending on athletic ability, with the norm being 2 years. Griff got his in only 16 months! And he achieved this all while recovering from his 2nd shoulder surgery! He is well on his way to reaching his goal of holding a black belt in 3 different martial arts! You don’t want to meet him in a dark alley, he might just "sweep the leg Johnny!".
OK, I feel a little better knowing that 1 room in our new house is done. Well as done as it’s gonna be unless I find something uber fantastic that I just can’t live without. Which might happen, I’m just sayin’.
So we have 2 guest rooms. I’m calling 1 room the “Audrey Room” because this is the place where my love affair with Audrey Hepburn will live.
I’m sorry I forgot to take a before shot of this room. But it was just plain white walls with dirt all around the light switches. Eew! I mean when it’s your own funk you can deal with it but when it’s someone else's funk it’s just got to go!
So we painted the room the same color we pained our master bedroom, Gliddon’s Natural Linen in eggshell. {More on the master later when it’s finished.} We also did a cool treatment on 2 walls that I saw on a decorating show years ago. I have done this treatment in the last 2 houses I’ve lived in. We taped off stripes with painters tape and then took non-yellowing Polyurethane and painted every other stripe with the poly. It’s a cool effect that it subtle but dramatic. Here is a picture so you can see what I’m talking about.
Cool right?! I freaking love it. It shows up better on darker colors but I like the subtleness this color created.
And here is the room once I got it all put together. And I say “I” because I after taping off the walls Griff took off the lake. {It’s OK, he’s been working hard and deserved a break.}
So that’s it. One room down, about a million to go.
We are in, as in all our stuff is here. But moved in is an under statement. There is just so much stuff to do! We are happy to do it, don’t get me wrong, but damn there’s a lot to do. Alright onto the pictures!
Here is our first picture with our house. This was the day we closed and we took a load of stuff over.
Here is the CRAZY jungle backyard before Myles had it mowed for us. Thanks Myles!
Here we are moving. We, and by we I mean Griff, decided that we didn’t need to hire movers but that we should instead move ourselves. Sanford and Son we were. A BIG thanks to Wyatt, Andrew and Joe for helping us move all the big stuff. You guys were life savers.
And Amy helped pack the remaining odds and ends! Thanks love!
This is pathetic. I seriously don’t know what we did before the internet. We have been without the internet at our house for 3 days and Griff and I are beside ourselves. Actually, we technically have the internet but we can’t get our wireless to work and my desktop computer has some awesome virus so it can’t be used until we get it fixed. Soooo, since we don’t have internet at the house I can’t post any pictures or let you in on all the exciting house projects going on. In the mean time I will post what I can from work, which isn’t much because I am at work after all. Here is a quick summary of our crazy lives these past few days. Ready? Go!
We closed on our house last Tuesday. We started moving that night and took over a load of crap, stuff, each night after work. Griff borrowed a trailer from someone at work; we both took off from work on Friday and moved almost everything ourselves. {Yes, the rumors are true, I am freakishly strong.} Friday night, Saturday morning, we painted the master bedroom because some of our friends were helping us move the remaining stuff on Saturday and I wanted at least our bedroom painted before the furniture came in. {Can’t wait to show you these before and afters!} We moved the remaining crap, stuff on Saturday and started unpacking a bit that night. Oh dear Lord the boxes. There are so many! After dinner on Saturday night Griff fell asleep on the couch and I unpacked our bedroom until 3am. {Trying to fit all our clothes into one room is ridiculous! I didn’t realized we were both such clothes whores.} Sunday there was more unpacking, ugh. Sunday night Griff tested for his blue belt in Brazilian Ju Jitzu and passed!! I am so proud of him! {I have pictures; but again, until I get the crack at my house, I can’t post them.}
So that’s a quick summary of what’s been going on with us. I have to leave for Chicago for a business trip on Wednesday to Friday and then drive to Humble this weekend. So I will post pictures as soon as I can. Just don’t want all 4 of you that read this blog to think I forgot about ya.
It's finally here! Today's the day we close on our house!! I am so stinking excited I can barley contain myself. I thought I would have trouble going to sleep last night with all the excitement, anticipation, anxiousness; but nope, not me, I feel asleep on the couch bout 9:30 last night. Let me tell you, it was awesome! With all the packing, doggies, working, weddings, packing, and just life in general, I guess my poor little butt was just too tired to lay awake anticipating the closing today.
Ah well, I'm rested, ready to sign my life way :), and ready kick this next phase of our lives in high gear!!
We are closing on our house in a couple of days and we thought maybe we should start packing? I mean, I had packed a little here and there but had definatley NOT made a dent in anything. So after Griff came home from Judo Friday night we decided to get started. We cranked up the iTunes and got to work. We packed a few boxes but we laughed and joked around more than we packed. Ah well, we tried.
So Saturday I woke up early, {for having gone to bed late the night before, or early depending on how you look at it}, and took Eva to her vet appt. to get her up to date on all of her shots. She was a good puppy and took her shots like a big girl. She wasn’t keen on any of the treats they tried to give her though, all 3 of them. Weird I know. After the vet Eva and I went to Pet Smart together to get her a name tag and some new toys for being such a good girl at the vet. {And maybe so she’ll stop taking Charley’s out of her mouth, maybe not.}
On the way home I picked up some Rudy’s breakfast taco’s, one of my favorite places for tacos. Deeeelish!!
When Eva and I got home Griff and I ate our tacos and talked about how badly we DID NOT want to start packing. Ugh, did I mention I hate packing. Come to think of it I don’t think I know anyone that actually likes to pack. Except maybe professional movers, but I don’t think even they actually like moving. But I digress. Anyway, so here are a few pics of us packing yesterday.
Charley doing her best to stay out of the way.
Eva laying right in the middle of everything.
This picture makes me laugh. This is Griff pouting because he doesn’t want to pack anymore. {Did I mention he only packed 1 box when this picture was taken? He said it was a big box so it should count as 2 boxes. Whatever!} Why he’s chosen the fridge to hug while he pouts I have no idea. But it’s funny none the less.
Yes, it’s a word. Look it up, I did. Or for those of you who are thinking… “Why should I look it up when clearly you are gonna tell me”, here goes. So yesterday, a co-worker used the word “coot”, in the sentence, “you crazy coot!” And I being the kind of person to quickly point of people’s mistakes, I corrected her and told her that I believe the saying is “you crazy kook”, not “coot”. She agreed with me but we both wondered if “coot” was in fact even a word. Thanks to my live in dictionary, Amy, moving out, I now must resort to dictionary.com whenever I need to check, I mean, correct my spelling. We looked it up and discovered that indeed “coot” is a word. Allow me to elaborate:
coot
–noun
1. any aquatic bird of the genus Fulica, as F. americana, of North America, and F.
atra, of the Old World, characterized by lobate toes and short wings and tail.
2. any of various other swimming or diving birds, esp. the scoters.
3. Informal. a foolish or crotchety person, esp. one who is old.
Perhaps I should look into purchasing some Word of the Day toilet paper.
{You won't believe this, but I could NOT find a picture!!} However I come across this website. Wow. I had no idea there was such a market for personalized toilet paper.
Or this little gem I just discovered … Sudoku Toilet Paper!
Anyhoo, seeing how I was intrigued by the new addition to my vast growing vocabulary, I decided to jump on over to urbandictionary.com to see what wealth of information they offered for my new word friend. {If you have never been to this website you need to check it out! Mainly because they use the word in a sentence and the sentences are usually hysterical!} See example below, {these are just a few}:
coot
1. A dark-gray water dwelling bird resembling a duck.
2. A foolish old man.
3. Seeing how the USC football sucks so consistently, it seems rather offending to
good poultry everywhere to call them Gamecocks, so a "coot" is a much more
realistic symbol for such an inept football program.
1) “Any coots arrested today?”
2) “He meant jorts, as in jean shorts; you know, the staple of every Coot's wardrobe.”
4. A slang term referring to a middle-aged or old person. Could be insulting
depending on intent.
1) "That old coot."
OK, are you still with me? You should be, because all of the above brings me to the real reason for this post; by far the most fabulous word of the day!! {You probably already guess from the title of the post}, but never the less, here it is! Crotchety! Isn’t that a fantastic word?! I mean, it has the word crotch embedded into the word! What more do you need?! That in itself makes it spectacular!{By now you all know I have a 12 year old boy’s sense of humor and find this downright funny!} Now you might have heard of this word before, and if so, just shut up and let me have my moment. Here is the dictionary.com definition of the word:
crotch-et-y
–adjective
1. given to odd notions, whims, grouchiness, etc.
2. of the nature of a crotchet.
—Related forms
crotch·et·i·ness, noun
—Synonyms
1. fussy, eccentric, grouchy.
Bore-ring. Now for the more enjoyable definition of this fabulous word… from our good friends at where else but urbandictionary.com… {Sentence examples #3 & #4 are my personal favorites!}
crotchety
1. An adjective used to describe an old person. More specifically, someone who seems to hate life in their
"golden years" and feels the need to take it out on others. These are the people that should be sent into the
surface of the sun.
2. Grumpy, bitchy, cow-faced, describing an old person
3. Of or pertaining to the crotchular region.
4. Of a sexually promiscuous nature.
1) “Look at that crotchety old bastard! He sure is mean!”
2) “Drive faster you crotchety old lady!”
3) “Ray-Ray was experiencing a crotchety itch, so he jiggied on down to the clinic on the co-nah.
4) "Daaaaymn, son, Sha-nay-nay is one crotchety ho'!" said one young urbanite to his homie.
Surface of the sun?! I mean really! That’s awesome! And are you kidding?!! Sha-nay-nay? I mean, we always knew she was a crotchety ho, but now we have internet proof! And remember kids, we must always believe what we read on the internet.
So my dear friends, let us recap what we have we learned today? Coot is in fact an actual word, not only can you learn new and exciting words whilst you “take care of business” but you can also brush up on your arithmetic, Ray-Ray took care of his itch, and most importantly, that Sha-nay-nay is a crotchety ho.
OK, so I know we have been MIA for a while and we have neglected our blog, so sorry about that. It’s just that this is a crazy time in our lives! And since I am the one that posts blog I have been a bit preoccupied with life. Let me give you a little insight on the crazy that is our life:
*March 12-14: I went home to Humble to help Mom get ready for her garage sale taking place May 1. After 25 years of living in the same house, they have a lot of stuff!
*March 20: Austin Rodeo {My company sponsored the BMF Cooks, a chili cook off team. Free food and booze? We’re in!!}
*April 2-4: Easter weekend at the Ranch with most of my side of the family there, {we had church service at the ranch and I counted 47 blood/marriage relatives in attendance, 57 peeps total.}
*April 9: Kevin and Kayla’s wedding, it was beautiful and we had a blast! So happy for you guys!
*April 16-18: Doug & Jennifer's wedding in Houston. Pack our entire 3 bedroom, 2 story house and get ready to move.
*April 20: We close on our new home!!
*April 23-25: Move into our new home, all by ourselves, no movers. Ugh.
*April 28-30: I have a work thing in Chicago at my company’s Chicago office.
*April 30-May 2: I fly back to Austin at 5:00pm on Friday the 30th, only to get into my car and make the 3+ hour drive to Humble for my Mom’s garage sale the following day.
*And sometime from April 20th through May 1st
I have to find time to clean our old house and take care of any "incidents" Charley left behind.
Whew!
And to top it all off we adopted a sweet puppy dog named Eva. We love our Charley girl and have been talking about getting her a friend to keep her company while we are at work all day. While we were at the ranch for Easter my Dad’s cousin Martha and I got to talking and she mentioned that she was looking for a good home to take her sweet Eva, a half yellow lab, and half who knows. She said that they love her dearly but they just can’t give her the attention that she needs. Griff and I talked it over and decided that we can give her a good home and lots of love and attention. So Sunday afternoon Martha and her son Phillip drove from College Station to Austin to bring us the new addition to the Dabadie Family.
The first night was a bit rough. She is used to sleeping outside, so it was a bit of an adjustment for her to sleep inside. But she eventually figured it out and slept through the night. She did keep trying to get onto the bed though and she kept trying to play with Charley. So last night I pulled the memory foam off the guest bed and made a pallet on the floor so I could sleep with Eva and show her that sleeping on the floor inside is OK. Surprisingly, that pallet was dang comfortable! In fact I plan on sleeping there again tonight and until Eva gets comfortable with us and her new home. I don’t think she liked sleeping on the floor by herself the first night because she was in a scary new place. I want to make her as comfortable as possible and if that means sleeping on the floor then so be it. Wow, the things we will do for our pets.
Anyhoo, so yesterday Griff and I loaded the doggies up into my car and took them to a local dog park and turned em’ loose. Griff and I ran along with the dogs on one of the trails for a while then let them play in the water, chase squirrels, swim for sticks, and whatever else they wanted to do. We wanted to let them play and be doggies, but we also wanted to wear them out a bit so they would sleep well through the night. Here is a picture and a video Griff took with his phone. Sorry there is not a picture of Eva’s face, but I will post one soon, I promise. {I need to remember to charge my camera and maybe bring it with me. That might help with taking pictures, actually having my camera. Doh!}
So to say the least we have been a little busy!
I will post as often as I can and I will remember to charge my camera. Love to all and have a great week!
{Sorry the picture quality is so poor. Griff took it with his phone, sent it to me, and I then sent it to my email. It's been around the block.}
Griff went home for lunch today, {as he does most days, lucky SOB}, and captured this picture of our girl taking an afternoon snooze. As I have mentioned many times before Charley loves her tennis balls. I mean loves, LOVES them! See the ball in her mouth? That's riiiiiight, she fell asleep with the ball in her mouth.
I see our "no ball in the house" rule goes over real well when I'm not home. Figures.
We love spending time with our 2 furry girls Charley and Eva! Griff is an electrical engineer who moonlights as a ninja, holding a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, a blue belt in Brazilian Ju Jitzu, and a brown belt in Judo. I am an accounting manager for an SEO company by day, and by night I'm a decorating fool! I love to decorate our home, craft anything I can get my hands on; paint everything black, blog about our lives, and pretend to cook like Paula Dean.
