Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to two of the most special people in my life! 

Greg, I hope that you have a great birthday.  Even though you always say it is just another day, it really is so much more.  I love you and I hope that God blesses us with many more birthdays together!  You are a very special man, the proof of that can be found in the love and respect that your children have for you,  the way that others see your honesty and integrity and in the way our precious Ayden is drawn to you and shows you that she loves you. 

Hayley, I hope you have a great birthday, too!  I am so glad you are a part of my life.  I am thankful that we have such a good relationship and I am really proud of they way you have grown into such a wonderful mother.  I can think of no other scripture more fitting a person than Proverbs 31:28 "Her children arise and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praises her".  I think this scripture describes you perfectly!  Thanks for all that you do!

Love you! 

Love Song

Love is all around you....
Love is knocking outside your door.....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Actually, we used this song in our wedding almost 10 years ago... The girls, Kristen and Hayley, were my bridesmaids and they walked in to the first part of the song, with the acoustic guitar.  It's hard to believe that it has been that long.  Kristen was around 10 and Hayley was just going into high school.  Brandon was just joining the Navy, leaving within a few days of our wedding.  We went to Las Vegas on our honeymoon.  That was a first for me.  I loved all the lights!  Watching the ship sink in front of Treasure Island, the Volcano erupt in front of the Mirage, and of course the fountains in front of the Bellagio.... everything was spectacular.  I would love to go back!  I always kid Greg about it...  I tell him that we should go back there because I barely knew him when we went the first time! 

We have also been through alot of changes over the past 10 years.  First, Brandon was gone serving our great country.  Then he met and fell in love with Corryn.  We loved her from the moment we met her.  We always know when we get together we will be laughing for days!!!!  She is a very special part of our family.  They married in 2006, and made their home in Jacksonville, Florida. We love and miss Brandon so much (Corryn too!)!  It seems we never get to spend enough time with him and Corryn!  Once a year is just not enough.  But time goes by so quickly.......

Hayley left early and went away to college.  We knew that she really wanted to be closer to that wonderful farm boy that she had fallen in love with.  Tye was in College Station becoming an Aggie!  Hayley started school at Blinn in the spring of her senior year.  She came back and graduated with her class, with a semester of college under her belt.  We had alot of fun travelling to see her when she was going to school there.... still miss those burgers at Chicken Oil Company.  Hayley and Tye married in 2007, just shy of Tye graduating from Texas A&M.  After he graduated, they moved back to Post.  Tye began farming and Hayley continued her education at LCU in Lubbock, where she graduated and then gave birth to our first grandbaby a few months later.

Kristen, well there is alot to be said here.  Well maybe I should say there is alot I COULD say here.  I know there is alot I FEEL!  As some of you know, there have been problems along the way.  I don't really like getting into all the details.  I get into those details alot in my mind.  I pray alot for her protection.  I love her so much it hurts, and I would give anything for things to be different.  There have been alot of things that I have felt cheated out of. Selfishly, I know. I wouldn't say that I was angry with God about the situation, but I would say that God knows my heart and He knows that I don't understand and He knows that this makes me very sad.  I love my daughter.  All I can give her is prayer.  Sometimes casting our burdens on Him is a DAILY thing.  We want to take control and do everything in our power to make our loved ones safe and whole.  Yet, we find very quickly that we our powerless.  It has to be something that comes from within them... they have to be the ones to reach out for the help they need... they have to want to be different.  I will continue to pray and trust in God.. and I will continue to have faith that someday things will be different.  I love you, Kristen.  Please never doubt that.

Wow, I didn't really intend for this post to lead me in this direction.  Sometimes the heart has a mind of it's own!

Even though we continue to face changes and challenges in our lives, love will always find a way......

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Love will find a way
Look around, open your eyes,......

Love is gonna find a way back to you,
I know.

Poppa and Honey's







Our little Aydee Bug came to stay with us for a couple of days while her parents took a short vacation to the mountains.  We had lots of fun playing, watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, visiting with MawMaw and PawPaw Melton, Uncle Clint and cousins Aubrey and Delaney, and MaMa and PaPa Massey.  Ayden was super sweet! I did find out pretty quickly that you don't get much opportunity to snap a photo of her!  She is so busy all the time! She is getting so independent these days and is just a bit on the mischievous side.  She has started going to bed without being rocked and does so well!  But we still rocked her at nap time!  She will just look at you with the sweetest smile and fall asleep quickly when you start singing to her.  All I know is that you sure do miss her when she leaves!!!!!!!!!!  





Eating Breakfast!



Poppa and Ayden getting ready to watch the Texas Rangers



Love you Bug! 

Jumbalaya!

Goodbye Joe me gotta go me oh my oh....
~~~~~~~~~

Well, I guess it is obvious that I am going to share probably my most favorite dish of all, Pasta Jumbalaya!!!!

The recipe we make is pure deliciousness!  It is VERY spicy, and I LOVE spicy food as everyone knows!  Greg and I actually got this recipe off of a show on TV.  They were showcasing the Cheesecake Factory's 'Pasta Jumbalaya' and Greg recorded it so we could back it up and see what all they put in it.  We have never been to the Cheesecake Factory to try their recipe to see if ours tastes like theirs, but we like our version pretty darn good.  We make this quite often, and one of the best things about it is that 9 times out of 10, Greg and I cook it together.  It is nice every once in awhile to spend some time together cooking.   Now, mind you, this recipe is NOT written down.  This will be my first attempt to write it down and explain how we do it.  Here are the ingredients:

And below are the ingredients I forgot to picture with the others!

                                     And don't forget the chicken!  This is cut up and dredged in the spices!!

Okay.  First you cut up the chicken (we usually use two chicken breasts or one package of chicken tenderloins)... chopped up and dredged in cayenne pepper, chili mix, creole seasoning, and red pepper flakes.  We don't measure the spices we just put them in a bowl with the majority being the creole seasoning and chili mix then red pepper flakes and last the cayenne pepper.  I mix these spices while Greg cuts up the chicken.  Then he coats the chicken in the spice while I chop up 2 or 3 bell peppers.  I usually use red and yellow, sometimes orange... sometimes green ( but I prefer the other colors).. it just depends on what I found at the store!   I slice them up length wise (the way you would cut them for fajitas).  I put a little olive oil in a skillet and throw in the bell peppers to saute.  This is where Greg takes over cooking the peppers.  You want to cook them to where they are soft, but not TOO soft where they start to fall apart. Greg usually adds a little more of the spices to the peppers. Just a dash of this and a dash of that.  I slice up an onion and we add that in with the peppers.  We add them after the peppers cook for a few minutes because we don't want the onion to cook down to nothing. 

 This is usually where Greg reminds me that I need to start cooking the noodles.  We use linguine and spinach noodles.  We throw them together in a pot and boil them.  I'm not a good judge on how much to cook so I just do how much I think we need.  Sometimes it is too much... Sometimes not enough.... we usually make it work though! Now we add a little garlic to the pepper/onion mix.. (about a teaspoon or more). When the peppers and onions are nice and sauted, we remove them from the skillet and cook the chicken in the olive oil and juices from the peppers and onion.  When the chicken is done (it doesn't take very long!  Just a few minutes... the chicken is going to continue to cook while you are adding the rest of the ingredients)... add the peppers and onions back to the skillet.  Greg now adds chicken broth to the mixture... you can add as much as you like... we like ours pretty juicy so adjust this according to your taste... I mix up a thickner of corn starch and chicken broth and add that after the mixture is brought back to a boil...  I then slice up cherry tomatoes and make sure that either the crawfish or shrimp we are going to add is ready.  The crawfish tails I buy are fully cooked and most of the time the shrimp is too... so if it is crawfish I cut the bag open (1 pound) and if it is shrimp (1 pound) i cut off the tails..... When the mixture is at the right thickness, we add the crawfish or shrimp  ... cook it long enough to heat it through ... then add the tomatoes.  Cook just a couple of minutes and it is ready! Drain your noodles and either mix together or place desired amount of noodles in plate or bowl and spoon jumbalaya on top.  I usually have either garlic bread with cheese to go with this (frozen) .. but I had bought an italian french loaf bread the other day, so I sliced us a few pieces, buttered them and added a little cheese on top.... cooked them in the oven and it was soooo good with the jumbalaya!

Here is the finished product!

Hope everyone has a great Wednesday!   I am excited because it is Game 1 of the World Series!!  GO RANGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~~~~~~~

Son of a gun we'll have big fun on the bayou....

Monday, Monday....

"Monday, Monday...

So good to me..

Monday mornin, it was all I hoped it would be........"
~~~~~~~~

Nelson Cruz

Well, at least some Mondays are that way.... a perfect example would have been last Monday morning.... a holiday........ but not only was it a holiday, it was the day of Game 2 of the ALCS ... Texas Rangers vs. the Detroit Tigers in Arlington, TX.  Now, remember, this game was supposed to be played the day before... but was delayed because of rain.  Much needed rain... Rain that was supposed to come our way.... and a little of it did... but most went further east toward DFW... thus explaining the rain delay.   Game 1 had two almost hour long rain delays before the Rangers came away with the win.  So it was no surprise when Game 2 was delayed to give the weather a chance to clear.  So, there we sat on Sunday evening... no game to watch.... Then, I very impulsively said to Greg: "we should go to the Ranger game tomorrow".. the rest is history.  We bought tickets, left around 9 Saturday morning, and headed to The Ballpark.  We had amazingly good seats... about 13 rows behind the bull pen... It was THE most exciting sporting event I have ever attended.  It was a nail biter.... tied up 3-3..... extra innings..... Nelson Cruz at bat... bases loaded ... bottom of the 11th..... then Cruz sends the ball flying over the wall!!!!!  GRAND SLAM! Not only was it a grand slam, it was the first walk off grand slam in postseason history, EVER!  ......... Rangers win 7-3.  The crowd went wild!!!!!!!!!!... We headed out to find our car.... took us a few minutes.... Monday ended with us driving back to our little town to get ready to start the week.

Later on in the week, I noticed several people on Facebook talking about http://www.pinterest.com/.  I decided I would look and see what all the fuss was about.  I am officially addicted.  Thanks, ladies.  I especially love looking at the craft ideas and the recipes.  I decided that I would try some out and then share on here what I thought about them.

 

The first thing I made was Jalapeno Dip. I got the recipe from pinterest with a link to the blog of "Plain Chicken".  Here are the ingredients:

Jalapeno Dip Ingredients

I must admit that my little magic bullet was almost two small to hold all of this!  I made it work though, next time I will probably get out the bigger one.  This was really good!  It is pretty spicy, and I only used the seeds of half of one pepper!  This dip is really good on chips!  It is pretty good on veggies, you see that I opted for the veggies.  Yay for me choosing the healthier option!!!!  Click on the link for the recipe!

Jalapeno Dip with Veggies

Here is a main dish recipe that sounded really good, and I just couldn't wait to try. Chicken Enchilada Spaghetti. I also got this recipe off of pinterest with a link to the blog of "How Sweet It is".  Here are the ingredients:

Chicken Enchilada Spaghetti ingredients

I followed strictly followed the directions except I ended up using about 1 1/2 cans of enchilada sauce.  I wanted it a little saucier than what it was.  I also used 'canned chicken'...  next time i will definetly prepare my own chicken for a better flavor..... other than that this was a good meal and fairly quick to make!

Chicken Enchilada Spaghetti

I have lots of other great recipes to try and will share about them as I make them!   I have some other "crafty" type projects that I am going to start working on pretty soon.  Ayden is coming to spend a couple of nights this weekend, so I am going to see what I can come up with for us to make together!

~~~~~
"Every other day, every other day
Every other day of the week is fine, yeah..."

Happy Anniversary!

Today, Greg and I have been officially married 9 years.  Sometimes it feels more like 90.(haha)  Not really, but it does seem like it has been longer than that.  I am so thankful that God brought us together!  After we had both been through painful broken marriages, it was amazing to find someone that could understand and know what committment and love really means.  Greg is an amazing father and grandfather, husband, son, Christian, I couldn't ask for anything more.  Over the last nine years we have had happiness, love, a fair share of sorrow, and joy beyond measure.... I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.  Through our trials, we have grown closer to each other, and closer to God.  The same can be said for the happy times, each reflection on those memories draws us together, along with our families.  The newest aspect to our relationship is the shared unconditional love felt for a grandbaby. It is a bond that only draws us closer with each moment, from the time we find out about the coming arrival until that moment when we see the precious child.  We have had many adventures and look forward to having many more as we grow old together.
                                                      I love you, Greg!  Happy Anniversary!

Month or So Wrap-Up

Yes, I know it has been awhile since I posted anything!!  Seems like we have been so busy over the past couple of months, I keep putting this off!  So here is a  short run down of what has been going on with us.  A couple of weeks after my birthday, we went to Hords Creek for a short vacation before I started back to work.  Hayley and Ayden went with us, and Tye joined us later that week, as did, Donna, Kelly, Kam and Whitney.  We had a really good time, but it was hot and windy the whole time we were there, except for one day.  One day it was perfect.  We cooked out, played horseshoes, rode bike with Ayden, and just had really good time enjoying each other's company.  It was over, all too soon, and we came home to get ready to start the work week.  June 1st was my first day back to work at the County Attorney's Office.  I worked there years ago, and I am so glad that I got the opportunity to go back!  I love my job!  It is certainly never dull!  I stay busy the whole time I am there and I would much rather do that than just pass the time!  On June 4th, was my twin neice's birthdays.  Greg didn't get to go to their party, but since Ayden was spending the night with us for the first time that night, she and I went to the party.  We had a good time and really had so much fun keeping Ayden that night.  She was super good and so sweet.  We look forward to doing that more often!  On June 15 we left to go to my family reunion in Alabama.  We drove out with my parents and then on the Sunday after the reunion, Greg and I flew home.  I had to be back to work the next day.  We had a great time and it was so good to see my relatives that I haven't seen in so many years.  This is a picture of my Dad and 6 of his siblings.  (there were 8 total, my Aunt Dean passed away a few years ago).


L to R:  Kenneth, Jimmy, Eyvonne, Donald, Nellie, James (dad), and Ronnie

This is a picture of the 'first cousins'.  There are 25 of us total.  There were 17 present, with 7 not being able to make it that day, plus one cousin, Terry, that passed away a few years ago.


Debbie, Me, Anna, Clint, Jeremy, Donny, Tim, Robert, Charles, Melba, Susan,
Randall, Teresa, Danny, Donna, Jay, and Cindy



The place where we had the reunion was a beautiful camping site on the Tallapoosa River owned by my cousin Teresa's fiance.  It was absolutely gorgeous!



Tallapoosa River

With all these pretty green trees and green grass, it was really hard to come back to hot, dry, windy and dirty West Texas.  But, it was also good to get home. 

Last Friday we went to watch Aydee Bug's last swimming lesson. She did so good!!! She didn't cry even one time and every time she would come up from under water she would look at us, grin, and point to the sky ( yes, we know, Poppa Number One).. She went with us that evening to a birthday dinner for my brother and played with my neice's who are quite taken with Ayden, as she is with them. 

We also got a new car (suv), and I LOVE it.  It is partially my anniversary present from Greg.  He worked long and hard to find me the color I wanted, haggling with several different dealerships trying to find the perfect one. He did a great job, because it is just what I wanted.  It has a touch screen for the radio, plus voice command (you push a button and tell it which channel you want and it changes the station... ) it also has U connect that connects your phone through bluetooth and dials by voice command.  IT IS AWESOME.  Thanks Greg!! I love you!

Tonight we are cooking our new found favorite recipe that we saw on the show "Unwrapped".  It is a jumbalaya dish with pasta instead of rice.  It is SOOOOO good.  It will be our first time serving it to Hayley and Tye... hope they like it!   Can't wait to see Aydee Bug.  Everything is better when she is there!

Well, I better wrap this wrap up up.. :)  I will try to do better about posting stuff.......... 
 

Extremely Blessed

Well, today is my birthday!  I am have to say that I am so thankful for all of my wonderful family and friends!  They really know how to make someone feel special!  Saturday evening my mom cooked me a great birthday dinner!  We had lots of great food and visiting!  Hayley, Tye and Ayden, along with my brother, sister-in-law, twin nieces, mom, dad, and Greg ate until we were stuffed!!!  We had my favorite "pudding desert" and everything was sooooo good.  Today, Greg grilled me a steak and tomorrow (monday) he is making  homeade ice cream (my favorite flavor - cherry!) and Hayley is making me a birthday cake.  I received lots of birthday wishes from friends and family, both on Facebook and by text and phone calls! I feel so lucky to have lots of great people in my life!  You are all very special, and I hope that you know I feel that way!    And I really have to say that I have the best husband in the whole world!  I love you, Greg!  I am so glad that we found our way to each other (almost) 9 years ago.  You have made such a difference in my life!

Now, I know you are all thinking about all the food I just mentioned eating, but I will have you know that I bought the Zumba for Wii last week (with my mother's day present, Thanks Kids!)  and I have faithfully done it every day, so maybe I cancelled all the calories out!  We hope, anyway!  I absolutely LOVE Zumba.  I know I look pretty silly doing it, but it is FUN!  and TOUGH!!!!  But it feels so good when  you are done!  I have been doing the 'easy' beginner level and I did the 'easy' intermediate level today.  They are 20 minutes routines and I do 3 of them to work out for an hour!  I am really sore, but it feels good!!!! 

Now, I have to mention the most special thing happened the other day, it brought tears to my eyes!  I was holding Ayden the other day in my lap, and we were playing pat-a-cake and I was holding onto her hands, clapping them together.  Then I let go of her hands, and kept saying "pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man" and she clapped her hands together by herself!!!!!  It was the first time she had clapped by herself!  It was so cute, and so sweet, and it was such a special moment for me, I will NEVER forget it.  Grandbabies are the best!  

Back to Reality.....

Well, my days of palm trees, fun in the sun, white sandy beaches in Florida are over and I am back to the dirt-filled, way too dry, winds of West Texas.  Sometimes I wonder why we chose to stay here.... then I remember that it would go pretty lonely away from our families and sweet grandbaby, so I guess we will just have to save 'paradise' for vacations!  We had a really good time visiting with Brandon and Corryn.  We went to a carnival at the school where Corryn teaches and it was really neat.  We got to see some of the kids from her class and her classroom.  The kids love Corryn and they think that "Mr. Massey" is 'cool'.... and I totally agree with them on both things!  Corryn is looking great, and she cooked some really tasty healthy meals for us!  Brandon, well he is eating vegetables, so "Yay! You go Corryn!"... you gotta be doing something right! :)  We had fun running around, going to the beach and the zoo, eating frozen yogurt, watching movies, but especially just hanging out and visiting... laughing about everything... and Ayden LOVES her Uncle Brandon and Aunt Corryn.  Here are a few pictures to share:



Although I loved being there, I am glad to be home.  I missed Greg, we aren't used to being apart,  so from now on our vacations are going to have to be together!!!!!  I love you, Greg! 

Time keeps on slippin'.... (slippin'.... slippin'....) into the future.....

Where has the time gone?!?!?!?!  Sometimes I still feel like I'm 18.. and then I see the mirror and it so rudely reminds me that I am NOT!  It seems like time goes by faster and faster every year.  I have caught myself still writing 2010 on stuff, and we are almost 6 months into 2011!  It seem like the the line from Ferris Bueller rings more true every day. 

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look

 around once in a while, you could miss it."



I think that most everyone gets caught up with our every day lives.  Work, home, kids, bills, families, and a lot of the time we don't take the time to slow down and enjoy our lives.  Slow down and enjoy everything around you.  Enjoy your family, friends, pets, flowers, sunsets.... take a quiet walk with someone that you care about and enjoy the LIFE that is all around you.

People will in time forget what you said,
People will even forget what you did,
But people will never forget how you made them feel.

Life is short so break the rules, forgive quickly,
Kiss slowly, love truly, laugh lively,
And never regret anything that made you smile.

When you love it is truly an act of faith,
And whoever is of little faith is also of little love,
And the love we give away is the only love we keep.

Life is short so follow the rules, forgive totally,
Kiss tenderly, love deeply, laugh often,
And never regret anything that made you happy.

And when it comes to finding love,
It is not by finding a perfect person,
But by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.

Life is worth living when you, forgive in your heart,
Kiss passionately, love with all your heart, laugh uncontrollably,
And never regret anything that made someone smile.

Remember, random acts of kindness can go a long ways!

Now, I must go finsih packing. Hayley, Ayden and I are flying to Florida tomorrow to visit with Brandon and Corryn for a few days!  We are really excited to go, but I must admit flying is not my favorite thing. (note to self: buy dramamine)  I really wish that Greg was going with us, but he is not going to get to this time. I will also admit that being away from Greg is not my favorite thing either.  In fact this is the first 'vacation' that we have not been together in 9 years.  I will miss you, Greg!  But I will take plenty of pictures so it will be just like you are there! (I know, maybe not!)

Everyone have a good day!  I added some "summer" songs to the grooveshark widget for you to enjoy!

Aruba, Jamaica, oooo I wanna take ya to Bermuda, Bahama...........



Motivation, Music and.... Zumba?

As you know, I posted a week or so ago about eating healthy and exercising.  Well, that for me lasted about 1 day. You see, I love food!!!!!!!!!!! Especially stuff like nachos, french fries, cheeseburgers, and all that other extremely unhealthy stuff!  Greg and I don't really call what we do "dieting", it is called a "lifestyle".  We say this because this should be a change in your lifestyle, not just dieting to lose weight, and then gain it all back when you go back to eating the way you ate before.  We eat mostly ''whole foods".  What I mean by that is, we eat stuff the way God created it.   Fruits, vegetables, non-processed meat, beans, nuts.  We cut down our intake of bread and changed to eating 100% Whole Wheat bread (we try not to eat anything 'white', like white bread, white rice) I know that this sounds tough, but we didn't go hungry.  We would eat a huge plate of salad before our meals and it really helps to fill you up.  We avoid anything with high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, preservatives,   There are a few things that we allow for that we call "healthier" snacks, such as goldfish crackers, teddy graham cookies, and occasionally a 'healthier' pizza - crust made of wheat flour -unbleached- and topped with Newman's Own Alfredo Sauce (all natural ingredients) baby spinach, asparagus, onion, chicken breast strips chopped up, and mozzarella cheese (2%)... it is really very good!  Anyway, we do still eat like this, alot... we just kinda got into the habit of eating out more (nachos, french fries, cheeseburgers!)  and eating alot more and snacking alot more than when we were losing weight! It seems like I go through this cycle starting around bed time every night. I say to myself each night, "tomorrow I'm going to eat healthy, exercise, and take better care of myself."  Then the next morning when I get up I ignore what I told myself the night before and the vicious cycle starts all over again.  I eat too much, don't exercise, and go to bed thinking, "tomorrow....... "  Well, today, my tomorrow has come!  I got up too late to eat breakfast (I know, I shouldn't do that!), so I fixed us salads for lunch with fish tacos.  I know some of you are saying "ewww" but they really are good.  I use talapia and season it with cumin and garlic, put it in a skillet sprayed with olive oil spray ( from my "Misto" sprayer that I LOVE) and saute it with some chopped onion.  We eat it on corn tortillas, I add jalapenos to mine.  Very, Very good!  Then, after lunch, I decided I would go walk.  I found this cool website a few months ago called  http://www.coolrunning.com/ where you can look up city streets and plot a course, giving you the distance you will travel.  So I looked at one of my earlier plotted routes and decided to walk from my house, down 11th street, to Ave S. to 84 and back.  It was 2.6 miles roundtrip.  I got home and started blogging and Greg came in from work and said he would go with me.  So we rested a few minutes and then walked that route again!!!  So today, I have logged 5.2 miles!!!  My pedometer officially says over 11,000 steps!!!!!! 

Here is a thought on motivation.  I have been sitting here for days (weeks - months) saying "i need to get some motivation"... But I realize more and more you have to make your own motivation!  I was still completely unmotivated as I was getting ready to go walking, but as soon as I started, I felt really good.  It felt great to be out walking!  So I have decided if motivation won't come to me, I will go out and make my own! 

I do find that music helps to keep me going when exercising.  I have  a "workout" list of songs on my ipod.  This is the list of songs that help push me along:  Another Brick in the Wall - Korn;  Bring Me to Life - Evanescence;  I Will Not Bow - Breaking Benjamin;  Numb - Linkin Park;  It's Not Over - Daughtry;  Headstrong  - Trapt;  In The End - Linkin Park; Our Truth - Lacuna Coil;  Whispers In the Dark - Skillet;  Stand Up - Trapt;  Comfortable Liar - Chevelle; and Diamond Eyes - Shinedown.  This is actually my "rock workout" list.  I am always looking for songs and making playlists to keep me going!

So, this brings me to Zumba.  Music and exercises combined!  I haven't tried it yet... I am trying to decide if I would stick with it or not.  The people that I have talked to that have done it, LOVE it.  So, if you have any ideas on the subject, let me know!  I would love to hear other opinions!

Parting lyrics for the day ------->  Take the money and run!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Easter Pictures

I haven't had much time to blog the last few days!! Hopefully I will have some time later in the week to catch up on everything!!  Here are a few pictures from Easter.  It was great spending time with family! 

Early Easter Egg Hunt

I went to my parents house yesterday to deliver tutu's that I made to my beautiful twin nieces Aubrey and Delaney.  They loved the tutu's, especially Aubrey!  Her eyes lit up when she saw the tutu's and she loved looking at herself in the mirror!  Delaney wasn't too sure at first, but quickly adjusted to it.  They wore them around the house and then Paw Paw went out in the backyard and hid Easter Eggs for them to find.  They weren't sure what to do at first, but after showing them to how to pick them up and put them in their buckets, they had alot of fun running around finding the eggs.  They really enjoyed opening the plastic eggs and eating the M & M's out of them.  Here are a few pictures!




Delaney

 


Delaney and Aubrey



Aubrey hunting Easter Eggs



Delaney hunting Easter Eggs



Aubrey and Delaney checking out what they found!



Happy Easter Everyone!!!!

 



More on Greg's New Job

We are really excited about Greg's new job!  He is still working for the same company, but in a different position.  He has been wanting to switch to something different for awhile now, and when the opportunity was offered to him, we talked about it, prayed about it, analyzed it, and decided that it was the right decision.  There are alot of "pro's" to starting something new, with the most important thing being that Greg was ready for a change. This will also lead to more opportunity in the future.  The only "con" is what I already mentioned, working on weekends.  But, I guess you might say that I have been spoiled over the last 9 years!!!!  I will admit it.  I AM pretty spoiled by my husband!  We recently took a vacation and went to Ft. Worth.  Originally the plan was to go and stay the week and go to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Race.  We added a Texas Ranger game to that, and then the Nationwide NASCAR Race, plus practice for both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Races.  Greg actually won a chance to take a "hot lap" with a NASCAR Driver in a convertible camaro around Texas Motor Speedway.  I might add that I got to do a "hot lap" also, but I only got to ride with a driving school instructor.  Greg got to ride with Jeff Burton.

Top Camaro:  Greg riding with Jeff Burton

The other NASCAR Team Chevy drivers that participated in driving people around Texas Motor Speedway were Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer.  I actually thought I took a picture of Kevin Harvick, but I guess since I CAN'T STAND HIM, my subconscious wouldn't let me!!  Here are a couple of other pictures I took:

Jeff Burton

Clint Bowyer

We had a really good time and are hoping/planning to attend a race at Talladega Super Speedway in Alabama sometime soon!

New Chapter

This week starts a new chapter in our lives.... Greg is now working weekends.  His days off will be Monday and Tuesday. We have had weekends off together for the past nine years, so this will take some getting used to!  To start Greg's new days off, Ayden came to visit!  We played, ate puffs, watched Yo Gabba Gabba, and played some more! 

Ayden playing at Poppa and Honey's

Poppa and Ayden



Ayden trying out her new camping chair!

















We can't wait until she gets to spend the night!!  Remember, Aydee Bug, Poppa and Honey's Rules are the Best!!!

Also, on Monday, Greg and I decided that it was time to go back to eating healthy and excercising.  Last year we both lost quite a bit of weight, and then, of course, gained some of it back!!!  So we ate supper and Greg decided to ride his bike (which is NOT my favorite) and I walked.  One person riding a bike and one person walking is not an easily "shared" excercise experience, but we made it work! 

Tuesday was spent running around Lubbock and  buying groceries at WalMart. (which is always an experience in itself!)    I figure I got my excercise yesterday by pushing a cart that would barely turn and dodging all the Lubbock people that seem to think they always have the right of way! (yes, I'm still talking about buying groceries!!!!)

Have a great Wednesday!