R.I.P.

R.I.P. zach the frog.

your short stay here was a memorable one for a certain two year old.

you will be missed (by him).

beautiful things

alrighty then.  this image encouraged me to share a few things that have caught my eye lately.  image via.

preeeeeety.  i found this image via Cup of Jo, and read more about the artist here.  i could look at her work all day.  a new spin on some classics.

man he's pretty dreamy, right?  i certainly wouldn't mind floating on that boat.  image via.

oh my goodness.  this photo essay by a brand new daddy is so honest and beautiful.  found via.

this quote:

If it is peace you want, seek to change yourself,
not other people. It is easier to protect your
feet with slippers than to carpet the whole
of the earth.

-Athony de Mello
(found i don't remember where)


and lastly, on a shallow note: i am in the market for a winter coat.  a warm, casual, roomy one.  here are the contenders (old navy is having a huge sale):

 

which one gets your vote? 

greatest hits

1) a birthday dinner with my girls.  complete with a patio and gloria's bean dip.  happy birthday, jenn!

2) watching my handsome husband run (and do really, really well) in a 5k.  followed by lunch at all good cafe (no pancakes this time), and a quick stop at our neighborhood halloween carnival.

3) finally making it to one of ryan and emily's famous halloween parties.  pictured below are marcy the hippie and ryan the bp oil spill worker (the host with the most).  seriously, this party is ridiculous.  cannot wait for next year's.

jesse james and kat von d even made an appearance.

4)  a little pumpkin painting.  can you guess who painted each pumpkin?

5) our new foster frog, zach (originally named nanan).  my friend jenn teaches fourth grade at my school and her class just completed a science lesson on frogs and their habitats.  each frog was adopted out to a student upon completion of the lesson.  well, a fourth grade criminal stole a frog and stored it in a cottage cheese container under his bed.  needless to say, his mother was none too happy at the discovery of this frog in her home.  the poor starving frog was promptly returned to school.  and now we have a frog.  poor guy is clinging to life.  i keep telling ben that zach the frog is "sleeping".  ben doesn't seem to mind one bit.  he got so excited watching his new friend float that he spit in the fishbowl.  i had to promptly explain that spitting is not allowed.

6) hearing a precious heartbeat for the first time.


7) explaining to the sweet little wild man below that babies grow in mommies' bellies.

until next time,
the end.
xoxoxo

go daddy go

well, he can cross that one off the bucket list.  chris ran a 5k.  that may not be a big deal to some, but it is for us.  we are more the patio-sitting, beer-drinking, tv watching, go out to eat type.  but lately we have made more of an effort when it comes to our health and fitness.  it seems chris has rediscovered his inner teenage track star.  hubba, hubba.

chris at home before the race.  it was early so i stayed behind to get ben up and fed before we headed up there to see chris off!

the race took place in our neighborhood and benefitted our local elementary school's literacy program.   can't beat that with a stick.  ben and i made it to the start line seconds before the runners left.  i found the top of chris's head (red hat) but ben couldn't locate daddy in the crowd before the race started.

which resulted in this mood.   it improved immensely once he found a tree to hang in.

what a stud.

gig 'em and good job, daddy.  
we love you and are so proud of you.

music nerds

chris and i are music nerds.  it is one of the many things we have in common.  my taste is a bit all over the place, while his is more specific.  collectively, our brains are filled with enough useless knowledge about bands/musicians to win that awesome musical jeopardy game that used to air on vh1 back in the day.  man, where is that show now?  we could win some monies!
i like to blame it on having waaaaaaay too much time on my hands in college. instead of going to baseball games, working out at the rec center, studying in the library, getting involved in some of the hundreds of student organizations, i watched a thousand episodes too many of vh1's behind the music.  it could also have something to do with the music magazines we read and our long-standing love/hate relationship with mtv.  chris will say he hates it, but i know the truth.  we are 31 and still watching the real world, for crying out loud!  when will it end?  will i be a 60 year old guiltily watching twenty year olds make out in hot tubs on tv?  hopefully i'll grow up between now and then.
we caught the latest top 100 artists of all time on vh1 this weekend.  of course it was a marathon, and of course we had to watch the entire thing.  it seems like they come up with a new version of the same list every few years.  and although i may not agree with the list order, it does remind me that i might need to switch things up on my ipod every now and again.


the list reminded me of my love for fleetwood mac.  they have the best behind the music ever.  drama for your mama.

ben went through an otis redding phase at around a year old.  he's an early bloomer.  i will never tire of mr. redding.

peter gabriel is so odd.  but his music is just so beautiful.  i had a hard time picking out which video to post.  he'll be back in my rotation stat.

(nanan, if you are reading this, skip this video.  you'll hate it.)  it's just so, so good, and i'll never change my mind. this song makes me want to drive around with the music loud.  and dance around in my gangsta saturn vue hybrid like the 31 year white mom that i am.  holla.


see, told ya my taste was all over the place.

greatest hits

man oh man, lately i have been in a glass-half-empty, worrywart, stress-ball kind of funk.  that all changed last week when we received some really good news.  and although worrying is still my #1 hobby, the black cloud that had taken residence above my head has since moved on.  hallelujah.


so with a much better attitude, i present you with this week's greatest hits:


1) we ran out of coffee last wednesday and didn't realize it until the next morning (bummer).  which meant ben and i piled in the car with jammies still on for a trip to the drive-thru of our local coffee shop for the most delicious chai tea latte and blueberry scones.

2) while i savored my chai, ben requested his own coffee (warm milk) to savor during sesame street.

3) a farewell trip to the state fair.  bye-bye big tex and corny dogs.  see you next year.

4) a spontaneous date night to the ballpark in arlington to see our texas rangers play (and lose to) the new york yankees in the alcs play-offs.  chris is a recovering yankees fan and has since decided to root for his hometown heroes, but he was like a kid in the candy store seeing nolan ryan, hamilton AND jeter all in the same ballpark.

5) i am having a love affair with the pancakes at all good cafe.  don't worry, chris already knows.

6) our big guy picked out this big guy as our first pumpkin of the season.

 7) a baby shower for the beautiful lady on the left.  we spoiled her with gifts, candy and pizza (her favorites).  our girlfriends have managed to forgive her for not finding out the sex of her baby.

 8) cuddle-time with my little boy.  those that know him well know that he's not a cuddler unless he is sick.  although witnessing my husband covered in vomit and cleaning up the puddle left on the couch (tmi?) was not the highlight of our week, snuggling the sickly baby was definitely the silver lining.


9) celebrating the birthday of this seven-year old show-off with nan's homemade ice cream.

now to keep my mind off of those pancakes, i think i'll go indulge in a bowl of blue bell cookies-n-cream.


until next week,
the end.
xoxoxo

wow.

these two lovebirds just celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary.

if we could all be so lucky.

bits and pieces

i made a discovery as i was trying to write this week's greatest hits.  i have no memory.  i guess a part of me had a sneaking suspicion that my memory was shot, but it became apparent when i couldn't remember this week's events simply because i didn't take many pictures.  it appears as though the memory card on my camera has replaced my actual memory.  i am only 31 years old.  pathetic.

this weekend had the potential of being really exciting and full, but due to a series of circumstances, it ended up really low-key, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  we finally saw watched the blindside.  i do remember that much!

i am looking forward to a few things in the coming week:

*a baby shower for kelly and the sweet baby in her belly.

*taking my boy to see a billion pumpkins here.

*figuring out how to make this.  for some reason this season makes me want to be martha stewart.  correction: this season makes me want my house to look like martha stewart's house. (great catalog, btw.  but apparently it only exists for rich hippies.  which i am not.)

i promise to take more pictures this week so i will at least have something to include in next week's greatest hits.  for now, here are a couple to tide the grandparents over :)

ben in his daddy's undershirt.

a conversation with ruby.

"turtle time" a.k.a. quiet reading time (something he picked up at school. momma's not complaining!)

family history

last friday, we all took off work and loaded in the car.  mom, dad, maw, and paw in one car.  me, chris, ben, chels, and zach in another.  we were on a mission to find the graves of pawpaw's siblings.  my grandfather is the middle child of three boys.  before he was born his mother gave birth to another boy and a girl that died in infancy.  they were buried in a graveyard in east texas.  his family moved around all over texas when he was a child, so all he had to go by to find the graves was his memory.  good thing he has the best memory of any eighty-six year old i have ever known.  let's be honest, his memory is better than mine.

he saved a piece of paper on which his mother wrote the names and birth dates of his infant siblings.  on this paper she had also sketched a needlepoint design.  seeing her handwriting makes me wish i knew more about her.

during one stop, we found the grave of my great-great-grandparents, addie and aj martin.  my pawpaw remembers riding to his grandmothers funeral in a covered wagon.  he was eleven years old.

a road trip to visit cemeteries is not the most exciting trip for a little boy, but ben managed to stay entertained by picking up pine cones, climbing dirt hills, and learning to go to the bathroom outside.

we finally found what we came for, the graves of pawpaw's siblings.  what is most remarkable about this discovery is that there are no formal head stones.  in the 1920's my great-grandparents likely couldn't afford them. all pawpaw remembered was that the graves were side by side, near the creek and marked by large rocks.

it was an incredible experience that will likely not happen again.  and if i think about that too much, it makes me very, very sad.  i am so glad my little family was able to tag along.

happy anniversary

happy anniversary, chelsey and zach.

there is nothing quite like seeing your sister as a bride.  she was stunning two years ago, and still is today.  amidst the maid-of-honor duties, my six month old child, and the free booze...i ditched my camera post-ceremony.  so i have no pictures of the bride with her groom.  but trust me, they were precious.  celebrate this day, sister.  we wish you many, many more to come.
xoxoxo

recovered

i came across this oldie, but goodie.

it may just be the best. picture. ever.

greatest hits

i have been a worrier lately/my entire life. (i get it honestly, thanks dad.) things completely outside of my control have been stressing me out.  so much so that chris has to rub the tension knots out of my shoulders every night.  so i welcome my greatest hits this week.  reflection does the body good, don't you think?


1) my favorite thing about football season is also my least favorite thing.  chris is gone every monday night to watch monday night football with his fantasy football league (boo), which means i get to watch dancing with the stars all by myself (yay).  it's the little things, people.

2) corny dogs for dinner. (sorry, romina!)

3) watching this guy ride his first ride.

4) a trip to east texas with the family to help pawpaw find the graves of his siblings (which he saw for the first time in over forty years).

5) lunch at hunky's with my hunks (who says that anymore?)  we were there to check out the urban street bazaar for christmas ideas.

6) saturday night with these two.  pictured below before bedtime with 'night-night' and 'gankie'.

 

7) riding the dart rail with this train-loving toddler.

8) it's fall.  the weather has been in the seventies.  i busted out the fall decorations.  windows open.  harvest scented candles lit.  i am resisting the urge to bake.  and the only reason we don't have pumpkins or mums yet is because i am waiting to get paid :)  fall is my new favorite season.

until next week,

the end.

xoxoxo