Now, don't be jealous or anything,

but when TLC's "Don't Go Chasin' Waterfalls" came on the John Tesh radio program last night, I let loose the entire rap portion at the end. That's right. I remembered it all.

This goes to show what great things I've kept stored in this noggin of mine over time. I can never remember the best way to get home from the airport, but I've got that mid 90's rap down pat.

Putting the word "rap" in the same sentence as "John Tesh" makes me laugh.

What? Where?

Just found a googly eye in Cole's messy diaper. Now I'm singing that 80's song-- "I always feel like somebody's watching me..."

Redo Master Bathroom, check.

After months of redecorating our bathroom bit by bit and payday by payday--we're pretty much done. Yay! Here is a before picture clear back from when we moved into the house --basically I had the same stuff from when I was single.

We have wanted to try our hand at home improvements, and our little bathroom wasn't as overwhelming as other possible projects.

We showed you our tile job, where the transformation began.

Since then, we painted our cupboards black, replaced the 80's vanity lighting, chose a wall color, changed our minds on that color, patched the walls and painted, replaced the hardware, constructed and put a frame over the existing mirror to cover up it's dated edges, and attempted to decorate.

We like it.

Unexpected Holiday

North Texas shut down for four days because of snow and ice. It never got above freezing, so the ice on the roads was simply too dangerous. Jake suddenly was on holiday with us.

Not leaving the house gets pretty old quick, though.

On the second day, we slowly ventured to the mall. We put the kids in the double stroller and held on, ice skating to the entrance. During our lunch, the power went out because of the rolling black outs the power companies were having to perform. Three fourths of the mall was closed down, which just felt odd.

So, after some play time in the kids' area, it was back home to our fireplace, projects, and movies!
It was ice for the first couple of days, but then some serious snow hit on Thursday. I sent the kids out with their dad to enjoy it. I stayed in and then leaned out now and then to take pictures. Because I've had enough snow in my life. I'm good.

Cole didn't last long once he took a glove off. I feel your pain, Dude. He came in and chowed down on chocolate Goldfish with me.

Yep, those are Walmart bags over my kids' shoes. There isn't much of a point in buying snow boots here when it doesn't even snow every year, and it lasts two days.
Tessa Lee loved making several snow angels, paths through the yard, snowballs, and helped Dad make a snowman. Apparently the snow wasn't cooperating in the packing process, so they kept it small. We'll name the snow midgee Terrence.
I actually felt like I had time to decompress because of the snow/ice week and all of the cancellations that went with it. Now I'm ready to press forward again.

Oh, and did you notice and let loose your best construction worker whistle? She's a beauty, right? We are the proud owners of a fence that stands straight up. That's right. It has ALL of its boards and none of them are rotting. Woooooweeeeee.

Jenny From the Block

Right before our North Texas freeze, Jenny came to see us! She's fantastic --no way around it.

We went strolling in the sunshine in downtown McKinney. They have a Paciugo's now! Mmmmm, gelato.
I didn't take out my camera the whole time she was there. Grrrr! It's a good thing Jen likes to take pictures. Again, the glorious gelato:
Tessa's foot pop pose:
We went driving all over the next afternoon and walked around the temple for a bit.


Is that blue sky unreal, or what?!

This poor boy. He's got his four front teeth and suddenly decided to have a bottom MOLAR come out on this weekend. He was miserable, and he let us all know it. We did get some of his regular cheerful self occasionally. (No clue why this is underlined, by the way. Irksome.)

We decided to drive by the place where Kennedy was shot so Jenny could say she'd at least seen it. On the turn around there is a pretty good view of the skyline. Jenny snapped these pictures out of our car window. Not bad!

Onto JG's Burgers. I love this place. I've raved about it on here before. It's next to the Animal Cancer Clinic, which kind of grosses me out, but once you get inside, it's forgotten.

Jenny's a Pepper. I think I would be too if my stomach didn't explode any time I glanced at a soda.

This girl let me talk her ear off. Thank you for coming, girl! It was an absolute pleasure to have you.

When Dad Came

My dad decided it was high time to come and see us, so he took a few days off and came to hang out. We really took it easy, and the kids loved having Grandpa around. There was a dual motive in coming to see us, though, and that would be the wild hogs. Yes. Nasty feral hogs. Dad and Jake were scheduled to go hunting these R.O.U.S.es on a Saturday night --with all kinds of night op. gear, so of course Jake was on board.

I had already told Tessa that when Dad and Grandpa went hunting, we were going to have a movie party where we would rent and watch Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeaqual (how in heaven's name would you spell that?! No matter. I refuse to Google it.) She looked forward to this movie night for a couple of weeks, and I'm happy to report that it was everything she dreamed it would be.

We had a chili quesadilla picnic and enjoyed a movie --complete with dancing at the end. However, I still can't get over the confusion of why the chipmunks would have to go to highschool.

And, this is what Dad and Jake were up to....

It was everything Dad dreamed it would be. Oh, the happiness. Blech. I'm really glad he enjoyed it as much as he did, but, honestly, those things are creepy. I'm not sad we didn't end up with the meat. I've seen their faces.

On to the boots! Here is Tessa sporting a Tinkerbell nightgown and some fabulous Grandpa boots:
Now Cole....complete with a hat from Bass Pro Shop that Gramps got for him.
My lovies:

Grandpa with the kids:

We had a nice visit and were really happy that Dad took time out of his schedule to be with us.

...Also that he pretended to like the terrible new recipe I decided to try while he was here.