Do You Really Want People to See That?

This morning when Jeff was leaving for work, Wyatt and I followed him out. We normally do because Wyatt likes to wave at dad riding away on the little scooter. But I also had the car keys in my hand. Jeff asked what I was doing. I was going to the car to get the camera. He asked why. I told him that I was planning to make a blog post about how I hate doing the laundry and the dishes. He said 'do you really want people to see that mess?' ha.

I told him how a few lady blog friends write about making their nest comfortable for their kids. And how it gives them pleasure to serve their families.

Me, not so much.

Don't get me wrong. I like to have a nice home. I like for our kids to have what they need. And I want the kids to grown up remembering that they were well taken care of.

But I don't love washing clothes. I hate folding clothes. And I can think of a million things I'd rather do than wash the bazillions of dirty dishes that we have every day.

Funny how I don't mind keeping the porch clean. I like working outside and tending to the plants and the front of the house. I love walking up and having a clean and nice entryway. Just don't come inside. The mounds of dirty clothes and dishes my cause you to faint.

I feel very fortunate that I am able to mostly stay home. I feel like one lucky ducky to have this family. This home. This life.

I guess we all have some sort of job that we hate doing. Just so happens that the two jobs that I hate the most will never never never go away.

I guess I need to work on my attitude about these jobs.

Oh, and did ya notice my fall wreath? I keep thinking if I decorate for fall that maybe, just maybe, the temperture might drop from 97 to 91. Fingers crossed.

We're All Friends Here

Last Friday night, we went out with our friends Amy and James to celebrate Amy's birthday. It was a perfect night to head to the Rattlesnake Inn in Florence, Texas. The weather was almost fall like, the beer was cold and one of our favorite Texas singer/songwriters, Max Stalling was performing. What a GREAT way to celebrate our friend being born.

Max played all of the favorites. We had a great time watching the college sorts be loud and stupid. We enjoyed watching the older couples dance and hold hands.

At the end of the show, we kinda of waited around. James had bought a couple of CDs and he wanted to get them signed. Max is a friend to James and his brother Thomas. They have even had Max out to play at our annual camping trip.

James was waiting in line behind a super cute and fun dancing couple that Amy and I had commented on earlier in the night. They were there with a large party. It almost seemed like it was some sort of family reunion. Well, naturally as the super cute dancing couple got to the front of the line, all of their people started joining them. Amy and I laughed as we watched the group grow larger. And then there was the picture taking. And the autograph signing. And then more introductions. And and now cousin Jill is here, so we should take one more picture.

The whole time, James is just standing there. I continued to make comments to Amy about it. I was growing more and more frustrated by the fact that those people had no regard for James and the fact that he (and all of the folks behind him) had been waiting in line too. All the while though, James doesn't seem to mind at all. This went on for a while (seemed like hours) and finally, James is up! Woo hoo.

So James is talking to Max and then he calls for Amy to come up and say hi too. So I get in line behind the last people. I am thinking since it is Amy's birthday, we should take a Max picture to go with the other 4 or 5 that we have. James is saying to Max 'you remember my wife Amy?' yes yes. And then somehow it comes up that we want to take a picture. Jeff gets the camera. They tell to me come on up. I say 'no no - we'll wait. I'm behind these people.' Those people say 'no, go on ahead' and then I say something assy like 'I watched all of those other people cut and I don't wanna be like them - we are good to wait.'

At that very moment I kinda felt like everyone was looking at me.

And then Max says, 'Come on up, let's take this picture. It's okay. We are all friends here.'

I've kinda been carrying that with me all week long.
What a great way to look at things.
Even though I am still kinda bugged by the whole disregard for the people behind you thing, he is so right.

We are all friends here.

Thanks Max for helping me to keep it all in perspective.

And if you are still with me here, then I think you should take a second to watch Max sing a coupla new songs that I really love.

The Mind

(My kitchen nook with some of my favorite things.)

Remember when we were kids and there was the TV commercial for the United Negro College Fund and the slogan was "A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste"?

Well, I was thinking about that slogan as it pertains to our kids the other day.

(Hand cut by Joanie for my 38th birthday.)
(This one is a Phoenix, I think. I just noticed the little piece of paper fell off the back. Waa.)

One of the things I love most about summer is that I can see that the kids are not wasting their minds. That they do things that interest them. That they have the opportunity to try things that they wouldn't normally try when in the school house environment.

(Hand cut by Joanie for my 39th birthday.)
(A charm to provide good fortune in the four seasons.)
(And I don't know how to rotate the picture, so imagine it with the square on top.)

About a week before school started, I was finding little cut-up pieces of paper all over the house. Seems that Miles had decided he would be Edward Scissorhands. A few days later, while vacuuming the couch, I found a piece of red construction paper that was folded into a perfect rectangle.

I grabbed it up and was definitely a bit irritated. UGH! Another unfinished project or piece of trash that has been left here for me to pick up!!!

Well, I took a minute and unfolded it before I threw it away. Low and behold, it was beautiful. An incredible, beautiful creation! So shocking and stunning that I had to sit down and really study it.

Turns out, Miles did it. No book. No computer. No TV show telling him what to do. He had just been thinking about making paper designs like the ones that Grandma Joanie has given me for my last two birthdays. And then he sat down and started cutting.

And look at this master piece. I love it.
(Hand cut by Miles, 7 years old.)

Kinda makes me wonder what other things the kids are noticing around our house. And how the things that they see are inspiring them. And maybe, just maybe, bringing out a hidden talent, hidden skill or even an interest that we wouldn't otherwise know about. I'm not a paper cutter. (Or a line cutter for that matter. ha ha. Made myself laugh.) How or what would I ever teach them about this art?

The kids are constantly looking at their surroundings and taking it all in. Are we even aware of the impact that these surroundings are making on them? Do they feel the love that is shown on all of our walls? Love for family, love for friends, love for art?

It appears they do.

And I didn't even know.

Guess I should go get those piles of clothes off of the dining room floor now, huh?

(And P.S. - this is one of the things that I miss most about summer being over.)

Sparkling Emeralds

I have never owned an emerald. But I did work at Emeralds once.

One of the most outstanding things about working at Emeralds was the girls. And boy-o-boy, it was a load of young girls living life and having fun.

I was one of the oldest employees (ha) and there were only two of us that had kids.

I loved hanging with all of those young girls. They were always trying to help me with the hip and trendy.

I am pleased to say that I am still friends with a handful of the girls that I worked with.

I feel very lucky that I have such a great relationship with Robyn and Jeri Lynn. Over the last 10 years, I feel like I have watched them grow up.

We worked in the backroom, they introduced me to Coldplay and the Gourds. I introduced them to spit-up and diapers.

They were the first girls that we ever let keep our kids.

The first diaper Robyn ever changed was for Miles and now she has two sweet babies of her own.

Robyn and Brent came to Sam's 4th birthday party and Brent taught him how to ride a skateboard. Isn't that something? A few years later, she became his beautiful bride.

When Robyn got married, Jeri Lynn danced with our girls. And now she dances with her own sweet baby.


If I could have our daughters grow up to be like anyone in the world, it would be these two young women. Full of love, optimism and a smile for everyone that passes their way. They were never afraid to take advantage of every opportunity that life had to offer. And when they love, they LOVE BIG. And I love that.

I also love that we still have them in our lives.

And that they are still sharing their life experiences with me and our kids.

Oh how lucky we are.

This past week we had a chance to play at the park with their kids.


We were also lucky enough to visit Jeri Lynn in the Austin studio of her jewelry company Herndon and Heald. (Yep - they are famous!) And can you believe that they really make all of that jewelry by hand. Melting every piece of metal to create those beautiful sparkles. Wow. Whew I grow up, I think I might pick up the Sundance catalog and buy myself a pair of their beautiful earrings!


And the kids and I also got visit with her fab husband, Ian, and see some of his mind blowing art up close. We spent about an hour in Ian's Austin studio learning about his art process and about the job of being an artist. Wouldn't it be great if we could hop on our jet and see his work first hand at Barry Friedman in NYC?

If only every child could be fortunate enough to have folks like Robyn, Jeri Lynn, Brent and Ian in their lives. I know we are thankful.

I know I am counting my lucky stars.

And I am so looking forward to making so many more memories together.

8, 7, 5, 2 and I GO MOMMA.

(Carr 5.)

(6:30am.)

(Made some of them get up SUPER early to take this yearly shot.)

And so here we go. Another first day of school marked off the calendar. The kids were so excited. I am so so so bummed. I don't like it when school starts. I like for my people to be happily riding their bikes, flopping in the pool or just laying on the couch watching the Price is Right.

(8th grader and kid that thinks he is going.)

School makes me sad. I was texting with my friend IRL today and we were talking about how it seems unnatural to send your children away. Don't get me wrong, we love our very special little public school. We feel so fortunate to have our kids in a school that has 354 kids from K-6th grade.

(2nd grader and kid that is trying to sneak in.)

So SBW and I held each other yesterday. And today. I haven't done dishes. I haven't done laundry. We are just moping around waiting for the time to be right and the front door fly open.

(7th grader with sneaky little 2 year old.)

The good news is...they all had a GrEAt first day. Yes they did. And they loved seeing their friends. And they loved having Ding Dongs in their lunch boxes. And they loved coming home and resting on the couch while watching Cake Boss.

(5th grader and the brutha that thinks he is going with her.)

And how 'bout these sweet kids of ours.
2009
2008
2007

Hard to believe that we only have FOUR first days of school with Sam. FOUR. FOUR. FOUR.

Thankful every single day for this little guy. Cause we've got 16 more first days with him. Whew!

These Days

Had a little squeeze time today. Ah, I love these squeezes.

Been cleaning house today. Of course, that means that the house is a bigger mess now. Good thing there is a pool to distract the kids from the mess inside. Hopefully when they grow up their summertime memories will be full of fun in the sun and not stepping over piles of junk.

I guess ya also figured out that I am addicted to hipstamatic. I am sure this addiction will pass soon. If not, there might need to be an intervention.

Goodwill for Goodwill

Our girl is in her first TV commercial with her friends io and Sara. We think it is pretty darn cool. And we think you will too.