Life As We Know It...

I'm in love....

2012-01-09T19:11:00.000-08:00

I have the pleasure of being Aunt Tonya to a lot of precious little ones. Davis is very special to me and Alex and I feel so blessed to be adopted by The Knechts. Samantha's sent this to me today....Davis misses me. :)

Going to have to make a stop to see Davis on my way to bible study tomorrow.

Home Renovation: The Bowling Alley

2011-11-27T16:36:00.001-08:00

Our Master Bedroom is SUPER long, so we have named it the bowling alley. Its so funny because EVERYONE that enters first comment is "Whoa!" because its abnormally long. One of the owners prior to us felt the need to extend this space. That is the fun part about purchasing an old home, trying to figure out why they did what they did and how it looked originally.

Master facing the bathroom
(please take notice of the TWO doors)

Master facing the bathroom after
(now there are three doors - we moved the closet access out of the bathroom and into the bedroom)

Master from the hallway door
(this is why we call it the bowling alley -- so long)

After Pic of the back end of the master

Sitting area

Full view from this angle

Master Bath Sinks Before

Master Sinks After

Shower Area before

Shower Area After

Master Vanity After

Master Vanity Before

Home Renovations - Entry Way Before and After

2011-11-20T20:05:00.001-08:00

Here it is finally!! Before and After of the home renovations. I am going to do this in parts, so here is Part 1.

Overall the renovation was so smooth. We used Metropolitan Construction & Design to do the whole renovation and were very pleased. If you need a General Contractor, let me know and I will pass you along their contact information.

Leiva Home Renovation - Part 1

Entry Way

Original Front Door

New Entry Way

Entryway - View from Front Door

New Entryway

Beautiful Stair Way

Old Stairway

New Stairway

Ok, it took a while to get the pics uploaded so that is it for part 1. I will work on Part 2 soon. :)

...So They Can Get Something 5K

2011-11-16T10:54:00.000-08:00

You Get Nothing, So They Can Get Something
5K Family Fun Run/Walk

The idea is simple, let’s gather together during this season of abundance and help someone else. Someone whose life will forever change from a simple gift.

WHAT: A 5K Fun Run
WHEN: Saturday December 24th
· Check In by 7:45am
· Run/Walk will begin at 8 AM
WHERE: Memorial Park 6501 Memorial Drive Houston TX
*see below for directions and parking instructions

HOW TO REGISTER: Registration is $10.00 per person. ALL donations will go towards the ministry done by Living Water International. LWI exists to demonstrate the love of God by helping communities acquire desperately needed clean water, and to experience “living water”-the gospel of Jesus Christ. Please visit their website to learn more about the work they do: www.water.cc.

Please click here to be taken to our Living Water International Fundraising page and donate $10. Donations through this page go directly to Living Water International to provide clean water for those without any. Upon donating, you will receive a tax receipt as Living Water International is an IRS recognized non-profit.

In the ‘COMMENTS’ section of the donation page, please include which type of donor you are:
(1) Donating and will be at Memorial Park ready to run it out
(2) Donating and sleeping in for this great cause
(3) Donating and will be run/walking on my own
This will allow us to know how many people to expect at Memorial Park.

WHAT TO WEAR: Please wear a blue shirt to the Fun Run.

WHAT WILL BE PROVIDED: A starting point and end point, a mapped out route (look for the blue balloons), a motivation to get fit, a sense of community. Other than that, nothing. Please bring water or refreshments you may require.

WHAT TO DO: Spread the word!!! We encourage you to make this a family event! Get some fresh air and start your Christmas off right!

We look forward to seeing you on Christmas Eve Morning!! If you need anything, do not hesitate to contact Tonya Leiva at 832.492.1962 or email tonya.leiva@gmail.com.

*Directions and Parking:
We will be starting and ending the 5K across the parking lot from the Memorial Fitness Center, near the softball field. (click here to see a map).

Directions from 610:
-Exit Memorial, heading east (towards downtown).
-Turn left onto E. Memorial Loop Drive – this will be the third light after getting on Memorial from 610.
-Turn right onto Arnot Street. Parking lot is immediately on your left. Look for tent with blue balloons.

Happy Birthday to my man!!

2011-11-14T07:27:00.001-08:00

This is the day

The Lord has made

I will rejoice

And be glad in it.

I thank My God

EVERY TIME

I Think of YOU!

Lots to do today, but wanted to take a moment and REJOICE in the birth of my wonderful husband. I love you Alex and thank God for blessing my life with you. Have a wonderful day!

Reality Whiplash

2011-11-09T05:34:00.000-08:00

You always hear people make the comment "I never thought this would happen to me" all the time. Well, I never thought that I would attend a funeral burying one of my bible study sisters before I even turned 30, but here I am at 28 and this past Saturday, we said goodbye to my sweet friend Melissa.

Melissa will leave a void in our bible study that will never be replaced. She was our perfect attendance girl and the girl who could be so blatantly honest, yet the most compassionate at the same time. Plus this girl was F.U.N.N.Y. And the best kind of funny, because she never tried to be funny. The kind of funny where I would find myself intentionally listening for her side comments, because if you didn't pay attention you would miss them entirely.

Melissa started having digestive issues in late July and by August found out she had a massive tumor in her abdomin. By October she started chemo and she passed away on November 3, 2011. Within 3 months, she went from perfectly healthy newlywed to gone from us forever. It is no surprise that we are all left with reality whiplash and a sense of "did this really just happen."

Two weeks ago we had a time at bible study where we prayed and cried and begged God for healing and cried and laughed about how much of a blessing Melissa is and cried. It is one of the sweetest memories with this study that I have ever had. Kimberly was commenting on how much the support of our bible study meant not only to Melissa, but also to Kimberly going through losing one of her best friends. We started discussing that times like these are EXACTLY what having a body of believers, and in our case our bible study sisters, is for. To carry the load together. To deal and heal together.

"Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." - Romans 12:15

Kimberly mentioned that she thought that was why Melissa NEVER missed a week, because she understood the importance of our group and what we bring to each other just by being together. Melissa got it....and now I get it. For whatever reason, God has orchestrated the membership of our bible study and we are blessed. We have absolutely no unitary connection except Him and that to me is so beautiful.

Back Row (L to R): Kimberly, Margaret, CL, Christy, Me
Front Row (L to R): Erika, Melissa, Samantha, Amanda

Missing from Picture: Erin, Catherine, Stacey, Stephanie, Jennifer, Priscilla, Mallory

This is a verse we have talked about alot through the Melissa ordeal.

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." - 2 corinthians 4:16-18

God uses time of pain and suffering to teach us about His character and His ability to heal ALL wounds. My CEO made a comment about some transitions going on at work and said the following..."Do I feel like this is still the way God is calling this business to go? Yes. Do I doubt it? Absolutely not. But I don't have to like it." That is the way we are all dealing with Melissa's death. We KNOW that God's path determined her time on earth was done, but we don't have to like it. We are focusing on learning about God through this trial and learning about His ability to heal. We are currently studying Jonah. The title of this study is "Jonah - The Life Interrupted". I would say this would qualify as an interruption and it will force us to seek Him daily and to that we praise God.

Melissa had so many great qualities. She was so thoughtful, generous, sincere, funny, caring and real all the time. When she started coming to bible study, she was not a hugger, but in the last year, she became one. :) I miss her so much, but I am celebrating that she is with the Lord. Thank you God for blessing my life with Melissa and for the ways you will grow our bible study as we process her death. Please use Melissa's story to Your glory.

Melissa emailed us an update back in September or October when she got the final diagnosis of her cancer. I know that God had fully prepared her for what was to come. Her comment in her email is below the picture of her below. She loved music and playing the guitar so this is the perfect way for me to say good bye to Melissa via the blogosphere. I love you Melissa and will miss you always. Love your Bible Study Sister.

"I have been praying for you all that no matter the outcome, that you will not be bitter about this and blame God for any of this. That you will rely on him instead of asking "why me." If I'm not bitter about it, than you shouldn't be either. I have also been praying that my experience brings as many people to Jesus as possible or for you to grow in the faith you already have. None of this is in my control, the only thing I can control is how I pray and how I respond. God is still working in our lives even in times of struggle." -Melissa Noack

Longing for Grace

2011-11-08T05:36:00.001-08:00

"The Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.” -Isaiah 30:18

God has been bringing this word to mind SO MUCH lately. Grace. Grace. Grace. He has been reminding me of the need for me to have grace with others, the need for me to have grace with myself and most importantly reminding me of the abundant amount of grace he is willing to offer me every.single.day.

Grace.

It is one of those words that means so much to us throughout our faith, but still means VERY different things at different times. Right now, all I can pray for is grace. From very superficial things to very deep rooted things down in my soul. Blog readers grant me grace in that I STILL haven't updated the blog with any pics of the house. Self have some grace on the crap I have been consuming and the lack of exercise you have seen. Friends grant me grace if I am an emotional rollercoaster dealing with life right now. Work grant me favor as I try to keep it all "together" while feeling so overwhelmed and unqualified it is not even funny. Hubs grant me favor for being bipolar in my actions and reactions. Seriously -- one minute I am his #1 cheerleader, the next I am nagging over something stupid. Lord grant me favor for the anger I feel and the doubt that runs through my mind.

You see, 2011 has turned out to be a very challenging year. There have already been a LOT of very exciting things going on that are very stressful at the same time and there have been some of the saddest moments in my life. This post is going to be long, but I hope to spit out 2011 so far to help me process why I feel so out of control.

Here are the things that have happened since January:

JAN. 2011: Cleaned out the whole house, touch up painted, staged the house and kept it spotless

MARCH 2011: Put the house on the market

April 2011: Sold the house in 3.5 weeks

April 2011: Started the search for the new house and found our "dream" house that first week, only to lose it in a bidding war.

April 2011: Found another house that was falling apart but had a lot of potential -- can we really consider renovating a WHOLE house?

MAY 2011: Moved out of the townhouse into a condo with only a mattress, tv and two chairs...everything else went to storage.

Memorial Day Weekend: Closed on both houses

JUNE 2011: Renovations began and we quickly learned that every free second we had would be spent on house decisions.

JULY 2011: Learned that our company was selling its biggest division and that we would be going through a HUGE transition not knowing if that meant I was staying or going.

AUGUST 2011: Learn that my friend had a cancerous tumor and would have to start chemo

AUGUST 2011: Decided it was time to consider starting a family

October 2011: Moved into the new house while is was still being renovated

October 2011: Learned things were not looking good for my dear friend

October 2011: No baby yet

October 2011: Got promoted and my workload doubled

November 2011: Lost my sweet friend at the age of 30

As you can see, we have been in a whirlwind of a year and I am very ready for 2012 and the promise of a calmer time. We are so blessed and God continues to guide our path in ways we could never imagine, but I am left exhausted and out of breath.

I plan to write seperate posts about many of the items above, so this is just an overview. God taught me so much about His timing through the house process this year and is still teaching me a lot about the joy of the Lord is my strength through the loss of Melissa, not to mention trusting in His will and His timing through trying to start a family, and the feeling of inadequacy in getting a promotion to a position I feel completely unequipped for. We will see when I can get these posts written, not to mention before and after pics of the house!

If you made it to the end, thanks! God is REALLY teaching me so much, so please pray that He continues to do so.

Blessings my friends.

Save the Date

2011-11-02T05:57:00.001-07:00

Bri and I were talking about trying to find a 5K/10K while she is in Houston around Christmas, but most of the fun runs shut down between December 10th and New Years, so that left us with no official race. I told Bri that we would just make our own 5K/10K.

Then Bri and Josh saw the picture below on someone's facebook and they started discussing how they could keep this in mind going into the holidays. Although seeing this picture is definately depressing, it reflects a true issue throughout the world. Now, the point of this picture is not to make anyone feel guilty about buying Christmas presents or suggesting we all sell everything we own. BUT....there are small things we can do that can have a HUGE impact. We can do SOMETHING!

*I have been unsuccessful in finding the original source for this photo,

if it is yours, please email me: briwestbury@gmail.com

That brings me to the "Save the Date." I stole a lot of the verbage from Bri's blog. Feel free to read her post here. Do you have plans Christmas Eve morning? There will be more information in the coming days. But, I ask that you would consider “saving the date” and joining with us.

Joining us for what?!? For a small thing that could make a huge impact.
In an effort to do SOMETHING, an event has been created, taking place December 24th, Christmas Eve morning. You, your family, your friends are invited to join with us to run/walk a 5k or 10k route. There will be no t-shirts, no concessions, nothing. You literally get NOTHING. But, we pray they (those in need) will get SOMETHING.

We have a Living Water International page created, and we request a 10 dollar donation be made on that page as your registration. This donation goes directly to Living Water International and you will receive a receipt which can be claimed on your income taxes.

So come on. Have some family time. Enjoy the outdoors with your friends. Set your goals to get fit. Spare 10 dollars. And we could BUILD A WELL!!!

If you are interested, please comment on my facebook page, email me or comment on this blog so I can make sure and include you on the Evite (which will have all the details)

If you are interested and in Houston....
Save the date: December 24th, in the morning.
Location: Memorial Park Area

If you are interested in being a part, but are not in Houston, feel free to get your friends, families together in your area and make your own 5K/10K route. Please just still register on our LWI Advocacy Page so the money will go towards building a well.

Looking up and Reaching Out

2011-10-25T10:54:00.000-07:00

This season of life has been a very unexpected one with some amazing highlights and some ridiculous and unexpected challenges. I am working on a blog post to sum up 2011 thus far for me personally, but I can't process it all right now.

Some things just don't make sense and although I know God's plan is bigger than I can fathom, the small pieces of His huge plan that impact me directly can be awful and hard to digest.

I have a friend who is dying of cancer and it is devestating. She is my age....and married....and as quickly as it showed up...it is killing her. She is MY AGE. I keep telling Alex, "That could have just as easily been me, or anyone else we know." She is an amazing person and such a blessing to me. I just can't believe it. I know God is already being used through her story and will continue to be, but right now, we are all just hurting watching her suffer.

Matthew West's song "Strong Enough" gave me some encouragement today and I hope it will bless you as well.

You must
You must think I'm strong
To give me what I'm going through

Well, forgive me
Forgive me if I'm wrong
But this looks like more than I can do
On my own

I know I'm not strong enough to be
everything that I'm supposed to be
I give up I'm not stong enough
Hands of mercy won't you cover me
Lord right now I'm asking you to be
Strong enough Strong enough
For the both of us

Well, maybe
Maybe that's the point
To reach the point of giving up

Cause when I'm finally
Finally at rock bottom
Well, that's when I start looking up
And reaching out

I know I'm not strong enough to be
Everything that I'm supposed to be
I give up
I'm not stong enough
Hands of mercy won't you cover me
Lord right now I'm asking you to be
Strong enough
Strong enough

Cause I'm broken
Down to nothing
But I'm still holding on to the one thing
You are God
and you are strong
When I am weak

I can do all things
Through Christ who gives me strength
And I don't have to be
Strong enough
Strong enough

I can do all things
Through Christ who gives me strength
And I don't have to be
Strong enough
Strong enough

Oh, yeah
I know I'm not strong enough to be
Everything that I'm supposed to be
I give up
I'm not stong enough
Hands of mercy won't you cover me
Lord right now I'm asking you to be
Strong enough
Strong enough

Pray with me for my friend Melissa, her husband Jacob, her twin Kristen and the rest of her family. Thank you. I sincerely covet your prayers.

God's Blessings through the little things....

2011-10-05T12:36:00.000-07:00

After feeling absolutely overwhelmed and out of control yesterday, God has used today to remind me that He is in the small things and cares about my concerns.

Here are a couple ways he blessed me...

Through my friend Samantha....she is always a source of encouragement for me, and she definately has the spiritual gift of perception and genuine concern. She always knows when I am down, and if she says she is praying for you, you can guarantee she is. Thank you for your words of encouragement Samantha. So blessed.

Through a elderly Muslim man at Lowes today. I learned a lot in a 15 minute conversation and will be back to that particular Lowes to check in on him. Very sweet old man.

Through my work today. I have said it before, but I work for an amazing company that truly cares for its employees, supports our passions and pushes us to continue to grow as individuals. Today our CEO reminded us that he is grateful for our efforts and thanked us for our hard work. A little goes a long way.

How is God blessing you today?

Navigating a Life Interrupted

2011-10-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

We start a new bible study today. I am so grateful to God for our bible study...in the past 3 years, we have been able to study about David, and 2 Timothy and the Essentials of Christianity, and James and about his Beloved Disciple and Revelations and Esther and the list goes on and on. I love these ladies I get to study with and I love how God is bringing us close through life's experiences. Within our study, we have gone through engagements, weddings, break ups, babies, miscarriages, death and now cancer and how God "gives and takes away". Please take a moment and lift my dear sister in Christ Melissa up in prayer. She is still really sick with pnemonia and has her second chemo treatment on Friday.

Our new study is a Priscilla Shirer study on Jonah. I just read the title and was compelled to read the intro, because "Navigating a Life Interrupted" could be the theme of not only my life right now, but many of the girls in our study. In the intro, Priscilla says "Interruptions. They come in all shapes and sizes. All colors and shades. Good and bad. Though we wish to avoid them, every season of life seems to include a few-sometimes on eitehr end of the same day. As wer're coming up for air from teh devastation of one, a fresh and exciting interruption takes our breath awaym challenging us with new responsibilities, leaving us feeling inadequate and outmatched. They shock us; they shake usl they compel us to change. Sometimes they make us wonder if God even cares."

I can relate with many of those emotions right now. Work is VERY chaotic, which makes me feel like the someone watching Cirque de Soleil. There are so many things going on, that you are not sure what to focus on and before you know it you have zoned out from being so overwhelmed. That is how work is for me right now -- this week is allowing some catch up time, but I still have a long way to go. On top of that, all the house stuff is very time-consuming. On top of that, dealing emotionally with Melissa's cancer. Life is just very much all over the place, which leaves me at the end of most days, exhausted and drained. Why is it that when life gets crazy like this, rather than clinging to God for stability, we just run around like a chicken with our heads cut off? (at least that is the way I tend to be)

Needless to say, I am looking forward to learning through the study of Jonah about obedience and learning to submit to God in times of chaos.

The house progress is coming along great...this week they are wrapping up most of the interior work, including last minute punch list items, connecting the appliances, and carpet. We also should be getting our new front door soon and then the next couple weeks will be spent finishing the exterior work. We re-poured the driveway, front walk and back patio last week, and the combination of that and the fresh coat of paint on the exterior completely changes the appearance of this house. I can not WAIT to make a book of before and afters.

We move next week and i can not wait. We have the uhaul scheduled to move everything from the condo, as well as the ADT man, bug man, delivery of the couple of new things we purchased, delivery of our stuff in storage, internet and cable man etc. All in 5 days. :)

Thanks for keeping up with our renovation process on the blog. It has been a really smooth process, but I am SO glad we are coming to a close on this chapter. I am ready to not have our stuff scattered all over and to NOT have to make a house decision every day.

Have a blessed Tuesday!

Prayers for Melissa

2011-09-27T07:02:00.000-07:00

Please spread the word to anyone and everyone you know that prays to pray for my wonderful friend Melissa. She begins chemo treatment today to battle the cancer in her body.

Melissa is in bible study with me and one of the MOST unintentionally funny people I know. Seriously, if you have the opportunity to meet her, listen closely or you will miss all her hilarious side comments. I am so grateful for Melissa and love being in bible study with her.

Please pray that God would heal her and quickly. Please pray for this treatment to be the appropriate treatment for her VERY rare type of cancer and that the treatment would be effective. Please pray for Melissa, her husband Jacob and her supportive family as they go through this together. Please pray for illnesses to stay away from Melissa as her immune systems weakens due to the chemo. Pray for wisdom for the doctors at MD Anderson as they approach her treatment. (It took like 6 weeks for her to get a diagnosis because she had all of MDA researching what this cancer could possibly be)

Thank you all for your prayers. I know Melissa appreciates it. She said her goal and prayer through this process is that God would use it to give her an opportunity to share her faith with those she encounters and she has already seen the many ways He is going to use her. She is encouraging me in my faith, that is for sure.

Blessings!

No more posts on the house.....

2011-09-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

The blog is going to go silent on all things house related until we move in.....so everyone (all one of you) will have to wait for the big reveal in 3 weeks when we move in.

To entertain you in the meantime, here are 10 things I am looking forward to in the new house/NOT going to miss about the condo*:

*Before I jump into that, we have been SO blessed to stay at a condo my parents own in the galleria and not have to pay rent, so we are just paying mortgage and not both. The condo itself is fine and I am not complaining about the condo, but more apartment living/temporary housing living.

10. A couch to watch tv -- currently in the condo, I just have a chair which is not really comfortable.
9. No more weekend morning bacon/egg smells. Someone on our floor makes breakfast on Sat and Sun every week, so the hall is filled with the smell of eggs and the feeling of walking through bacon grease.
8. My new morning commute -- going from 30 minutes in galleria traffic, to 2 miles on neighborhood roads.
7. No more decisions around the house -- I don't remember what Alex and I used to spend our week nights doing.
6. All my kitchen gadgets and pots/pans again. Right now I am working with one pot and one pan...that is all. No soup pot, no mixers, no nada.
5. NO elevators -- in the condo we have to deal with an elevator in the garage, which I am pretty sure was the first elevator EVER and I age a year every time i have to ride in it. Its so bad, i will take the stairs many times filled with grocery bags or drycleaning just to avoid this elevator. The one in the lobby is just busy, so you are often waiting forever.
4. The ease of bringing in groceries and/or drycleaning.
3. DVR again - we rarely actually sit down to watch tv until 8, so DVR is much missed in the condo.
2. Having a backyard
1. My kitchen -- might just have to sleep there our first night in the house.

I am sure there are more things...but this should do for now.

Have a blessed week!

Lately - OTHER than the house....

2011-09-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

Although the house is consuming us right now....life goes on and we have been keeping busy.

Football season is in full swing, which means my husbands 2nd or 3rd great love is back. (not sure what comes first, golf or football -- my guess would be football. It doesn't really matter, I know what numero uno is :) )

We have only had one home game so far, but Saturday tailgating will definately be keeping us busy. I love the football gives people a great excuse to hang out though....we went over to The Waters on Saturday to watch the A&M game and Alex watched the UH game via internet from the dining room. Alex found a new COugar fan Saturday in ThomAdam. Alex should get paid for the PR he does for UH. The Waters are official Cougar fans and probably better fans than many Alum. They have season tickets and as soon as the A&M game ended, Mikey went up and switched to Cougar gear. So grateful to have such great friends.

Did ya'll hear about the fire at George Bush State Park? It is about 12 miles from my office. I snapped this pick during the fire.

It looks so menacing and this was a small fire relative to the others recently. I can only imagine what the Bastrop Fire looked like.

I have also gotten to see some of my favorite babies lately which I always love!!!

Alex, Davis Monster and I hung out a couple weeks ago so Mom and Dad could have a date night. He is such a fun little guy and is a great kid to babysit because he will show you how to do everything if you don't know. I love that we get to be Aunt Tonya and Uncle Alex to Davis. Such a blessing.

Josh and Bri moved to Washington and were in Houston a couple weeks in the interim. You know I spent as much time as I could with Estelle. Wish they lived closer, but I will take the same continent where we can text and I can call when I want.

Sweet Estelle at Chipotle

We also spent a day in The Woodlands hanging out with Mom.. as you can see, Estelle loved my Mom. Who could blame her though?!? Mom is amazing.

That wraps up this random post. I am giving myself a hall pass from making any sense or having any sort of consistency until we are in the house and unpacked. :) Which is in 26 days btw

Progress...is progress

2011-09-17T14:41:00.000-07:00

They are moving right along on the house...it seems like they still have A TON to do considering we are supposed to be moving in in a month, but hopefully they can get everything done. The most exciting thing is that they put in our hardwoods yesterday and today and they look GREAT!!!

We also have our GRANITE!! I can't tell you how happy I am with all of our selections and it is all thanks to the hubs. He has spent COUNTLESS hours researching and helps me to think about ALL the details and think long-term. Seriously, he missed his calling as a Custom Home Designer. He is really good.

Master Bath Granite and Hardware

I love my kitchen...I told Alex the other day that our first night in the house, I might sleep in the kitchen.

Can you see my farmhouse sink in the background??

Isn't the granite pretty...

These are all out of order. Sink above is in the Master, and the pic below is the kitchen again.

Master Again -- Do I have you dizzy yet?

We met with the window treatment lady today, so that is off the list. Still to come....carpet, exterior work, new concrete on driveway, back patio and front walkway, shutters, new front door, and then the punch list. :) Plus moving, decorating and unpacking....but the great part is we will be in for fall which is both Alex and my favorite part of the year!!!

Do my eyes deceive me???

2011-08-29T05:49:00.000-07:00

Has anyone else checked out the forecast for the next week???? Please God let this forecast come to fruition....

The countdown has begun.....

2011-08-27T15:55:00.000-07:00

I am way overdue for an update, so here are a bunch of pics.

We are really making some great progress at the house and we are officially getting excited and anxious to move in. During lunch the other day, I created a countdown link. I was trying to explain this to Alex and he said he NEVER used these growing up, so I took a pic to show him.

Right now we are looking at around 48 days until move in day assuming there are no major issues that arise with the exterior work.

They have painted most of the house and I am LOVING the colors we chose. We looked at a bunch of paint brands but went with Benjamin Moore for all of our colors.

This one is a little blurry, but the half bath is BM "Weimeraner". We will have a biscuit colored pedestal sink and toilet. Can't wait to get everything in place!!

We picked the granite for the house and it should get installed in the next week or so!

Kitchen Granite is called Colonial Cream and we found the BEST slabs...I love love love them!!!

This is the color of the room that will eventually be the nursery. I just picked a fun color and if it doesnt work with whatever color scheme we want once we actually get pregnant, we will just repaint....but I really like it. It looks slightly green, slightly blue depending on the lighting and its called Tranquility.

There is a theme in our house and it is called --- blue. We didn't do this on purpose, but we loved these colors too much to not pick them. The pick below is the Guest Room and is a blue gray called Puritan Gray.

This is the third bedroom and its Bleeker Beige.

They started putting up lighting today and it looks SO GOOD!!!! In between these wall sconces will be a long mirror in the living room. What do you think ?!?!?

Chandelier in the dining room....we need to raise it a little bit but I think it will work great with our furniture.
Our blue master bedroom. The color is called Silver Mink. I heart it.
This is my favorite part of the house. This is the picture window from our kitchen dining area and I can just picture sitting at this table in the morning, working on bible study and watching Spencer in the backyard chasing all the squirrels.
Just a little bit of debris in the back yard.

Sorry these are all over the place. This is the granite that will be in the master bathroom. Its called Kashmir Gold.
This is the granite that will be in the upstairs bathrooms. Love it too! :)
They have tiled most of the bathrooms too. We have the same travertine throughout. This is the shower in the jack & jill bath.

So, there you go. They are going to put in granite, finish the tile work, finish painting and put up the lighting fixtures. Then they will put in flooring and all the other finishing work and then they will be moving on the exterior. Outside we will be painting the brick, replacing the gutters, siding, trim, fascia (sp) etc. Still a lot of updates to come, so stay tuned.

Pray with me please....

2011-08-12T06:21:00.000-07:00

Good Morning,

God has laid quite a few people on my heart lately and I would love if you pray with me. I am leaving out names, but please know that these are specific people and not generalities.

Thank you for praying!!

A friend of mine recently found a mass that had attached itself to her uterus. In surgery, they had to remove her uterus, part of her small intenstines, part of her colon and two lymph nodes. She is still waiting on pathology reports as to whether or not the mass is malignant or benign. Please be in prayer for her and her husband. They had started trying to have kids earlier this year, so this is a huge life change for them. They have a long road in front of them and they would appreciate your prayers.

One of my co-workers and friends had surgery this week to repair/remove four herniated disks. Pray for healing and quick recovery for her.

I just found out that one of my friends does not believe in God at all. We had a fairly big conversation the other day and I am praying for future conversations. Pray for me and my friend.

Thanks lovelies. Have a great weekend.

Its on its way.....

2011-08-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

I just got an email that my Life Planner has been shipped and I should be receiving it tomorrow or Monday. Erin Condren makes all sorts of personalized goodies from Address Labels to serving trays and I am so excited for my planner to get here...it will look like the one below.

Seriously, check out their website. Plus they handle business VERY professionally. Someone hacked into their website and deleted their orders for a week, mine being one of them and they were able to re-take my order and still get it out on time. I was very impressed and looking forward to my planner!!!

Let me know if you decide to get one.

The Landry Wedding Weekend

2011-08-02T05:48:00.000-07:00

One of Alex's friends from UH got married this past weekend, so we spent the weekend in Georgetown, north of Austin. We had such a fun weekend. Alex has had to come along to his fair share of weddings with me, so it was nice to go along with him for a change. He was in the wedding, so we had the rehearsal dinner Friday night at The Oasis. I had never been here, but always heard such great things about the view. It definately did not disappoint.

The Gang at Dinner

The Robinsons, The Landry's, Steven and The Leivas

Beautiful Sunset

On Saturday, Alex had wedding festivities with the boys, so I was very lazy and did little to nothing until the wedding. I did get to go to Cheddar's for lunch with Kelley and had the Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad, which made me think of A&M and my dining buddy Amanda. :)

The wedding was at a venue called Kindred Oaks. It was beautiful.

The Landry's being announce for the first time.

They are a beautiful couple and so happy. It is always such a joy to attend weddings where the families and the couple are all just ready to celebrate the day finally being here. Seriously, I wish I had a picture of Caitlin during the ceremony...she was the giddy-est bride I have EVER seen. It was really precious. She was just so happy and every time she would look at Philip, this HUGE smile would come to her face.

Here are some pics from the wedding day

The Leivas

The Three Musketeers

We got to see our tailgating buddies.

Alex, Kelli and I

(and Laura and Preston in the background...can't believe I didnt get a pic with them)

Steven and I

(Steven is like my adopted brother)

The Ladies

(Don't mind the sweat sheen on our faces)

So the wedding and reception were all outside. When I first heard this, I was VERY skepitcal that it was going to be ridiculous hot, but it was not that bad. It was definately hot, but not ridiculous.

There was a small room where the cakes were that had AC vents in the floor, so anytime we would get hot, the Kelleys and I would go "visit the cake" which by the end of the night became "cake vent time".

People at the wedding probably thought we were very vain, because we would go stare at ourselves in the mirror below while standing over the cake vent. :)

Kelli, Kelley and I with "Cake Vent"

Cake Vent

There was lots of dancing at the wedding which was a lot of fun.
Steven and the lovely bride, Caitlin

Kelli and the groom

Required UH wedding photo -- we have one of these from our wedding too
L to R: Snoop, Jimmy?(don't know him - ha), Alex, Kelley, Steven, Kyle and Kelli

The Newlyweds - they got married in April

Steven encouraging everyone to 'dougie'

I have a video of this I need to post too.

Dancing dancing
Don't mind my J.Lo bootie

-- work is slowing down now and I went to the gym yesterday....it will be gone shortly.

My camera was apparently hijacked

We are blessed with such great friends and Alex's friends from school are no exception. I had so much fun spending time with them this weekend and it got me ready for football season and tailgating -- which could prove to be challenging because the UH schedule is LAME as far as game days/times. Oh well, we will make the most of it.

Congrats again Caitlin and Philip. Thanks for letting us celebrate your big day with you. I hope you are enjoying your honeymoon and pray blessing upon blessings in your marriage.

We have CABINETS

2011-08-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

We are making so much progress at the house! :) We officially have cabinets in and they look AMAZING!! I am so pleased with our General Contractors.....Heather thought for me and had a custom drawer added for a trash can, a spice rack, a corner cabinet with a lazy susan and a thin cabinet for cutting boards etc! Plus she gave me shelves for my cookbooks. All VERY useful and things I didn't even think about. Actually, last week Alex and I were trying to come up with a plan for the trash can since we hadn't thought to make one of the cabinets a space for trash and low and behold, Heather had it all taken care of. :)

Here are some pics....

Lovely Kenmoore Kitchen Cabinets with a chocolate glaze

I am going to HEART this kitchen

Espresso Cabinets in the bathrooms

This is in the Master Bath

This is the Jack & Jill Bath
Love the linen tower

I will have a laundry ROOM

(What to do with all those cabinets)

In the next two - three weeks they will put in tile floors, tiling in the bathrooms, granite and PAINT. Such a fun part of this project! :)

House and Life Update

2011-07-27T18:59:00.000-07:00

So the month of July has been BEYOND crazy!!!! The last week of June, my company announced it is selling our crude oil division. We have three divisions currently but crude oil is the largest by far. To add a little stress, they announced that they wanted to close the deal by August 1st. The PSA was signed on Tuesday and the crude division will be officially gone on August 1st as planned. We went through this slightly last year when we sold our butane division, but it was nearly as stressful because it didn't impact as many people within the company, plus crude oil is what really started Texon back in the day.

Needless to say, it has been a very tense 4 weeks, not to mention that the first week of July I was in MN and not able to work at all. In addition to state tax work, I do all our regulatory items, so I am responsible for ensuring that we are registered in all the necessary states. I have been scrambling to get all the state agencies to work with me to get registered and set up in time for the transition. God provided in so many ways and reminded me the importance of my lovely support system through my wonderful husband who has seen me slim to none since June and who encourages me and affirms me in my hard work, plus my family and my W.O.W. ladies have been so great praying for me and dealing with Tonya the Space Cadet. (seriously, my mind has been in so many places, I am just happy if I am in the right place, at the right time, with the appropriate clothing on.

Just to give you an idea of the craziness, under all this paper is a desk somewhere....

I have worked the last couple weekends and one of the weekends, Alex was out of town at Philip's bachelor party and I felt bad leaving Spence at the condo alone all day, so he came up and helped me work. :)

Or distracted me...he actually did really well, just freaked out everytime he would hear the printer down the hall.

If working crazy hours and trying to keep up with house renovations isn't enough, last week we made the executive decision that it was time to say goodbye to the Passat. I took it in to get an oil change and they found a few issues, plus some potential issues that would add up to north of $3500.00 not to mention I need new breaks. We just decided it was time to stop pouring money into the Passat (we had spent over $5000 in the last 18 months on it already) and we got a new car. We debated over this decision a LOT because we did not currently have a car payment at all. It was to the extreme that when we woke up on Saturday, we both had decided to just put the money into the car but by Saturday evening were driving home in a new, reliable, safe car. Not to mention, my oil changes and service needs are covered for at least two years!!! What a RELIEF!!!

Here is the new ride....I finally got my SUV.

And NO, I am not pregnant. I have already had like 3 people ask me if that is why I got an SUV. I do hope to be pregnant sometime in the next 8 years, so yes, eventually this will be a family car, but right now it is just a family car for the three of us - Alex, me and Spence (he hasn't ridden in it yet, but will get to tonight when we go see his cousins).

In House news we are making some great progress, we have new windows going in, new doors, crown molding, baseboards, the cabinets arrived this week and next week we begin tile. :) October 1st can't get here SOON ENOUGH!!!

Pics of the progress:

Love love love my picture window to the backyard -- can't you just picture all the fun that will be had in that backyard? LOVE!

I really like that in this picture you can see the new door and the old door.

This is from our kitchen dining area into the courtyard.

New window in the Master...this used to be four little windows.

I love that this allows in more light.

Window from the living room into the backyard...it is crazy how much the new windows improve EVERYTHING!

Can we say "Hello Cabinets!"

The kitchen and utility room will have white cabinets with a brown glaze and the bathrooms will have espresso cabinets. Can't wait to see them installed.....

Remember the old brick wall with the wet bar?

Now look at the lovely opening to the kitchen. Eventually there will be granite and barstools here.

Last Saturday, my parents drove over to our neck of the woods and we grabbed some breakfast and then they helped us clean up the yard (or start to). There were all these overgrown beds in the back yard that I was just itching to tear out, so while Dad and Alex mowed and weed wacked the yard, Mom and I started going to town clearing out 30 years worth of leaves and chomping out the dead plants. I will have to pull out some "originals" pictures so you can truly appreciate the difference, but here is our handy work.

The debris :)

Had like 4 dead bushes and 3 nasty little palms with snake like roots....this was definately a labor of love for sure!

All clean and ready for sod -- whenever that will be.

Again -- eventually I hope for this to just be grass. It was STACKED with miscellaneous dead plants.

In front of the column and leaning awning (which will be fixed) was a line of bushes like those agains the garage. No mas.

I can't wait to get back out there to work on the remaining 80% of the yard. In 4 hours we raked up 12 bags of leaves and we only got through one fourth of the back yard.

House Update #3

2011-07-10T18:11:00.000-07:00

After being gone for a week, I was VERY anxious to go see the house. Since I left, they have finished all of the electrical work and plumbing. They have also sheetrocked the whole house, so we can see the way everything will be. :) The more they accomplish on the house, the more impatient I get about moving it. 2 and a half months seems like a VERY long time to go...but there is still a lot of work to do, so I guess I will have to learn to be patient.

We have to pick out paint for the house soon, so Alex and I bought a BUNCH of paint samples and went to the house today to test them out. It was very successful and we have picked the paint for almost all of the interior of the house and the exterior of the house.

See all the samples....we also have 3 blue samples in the master.

(Erika - one of which is called "Waters Edge")

So many options....
We only have to pick colors for two more bedrooms and we are all set. Coming up in the reno includes texturing the walls, trim, doors, cabinets.....

Can't wait to start getting new stuff in the house.....

Trip up North

2011-07-10T17:43:00.001-07:00

I spent the last week up in Minnesota visiting my family. I was such a great week with lots of quality time. These trips always feel so fast because there are so many people to see. I am so glad I was able to spend the week up there, but it feels great to be back home. Work is pretty busy right now, so I am anxious to get into the office and get some work done.

Here are some pics from my week in MN.

Spending time with my cousins....

Alicia and her husband Ben are in seminary and about to move to Washington State for a year, so I was grateful for some time catching up with her. I also saw some of my other cousins, but failed to take any pics. :(

Alicia and I at lunch

I spent the second half of my trip with my Grandma Farm (my mom's mom). While we were there, Alicia, Mom and I bought a new valence for Grandma's windows, we re-upholstered Grandma's kitchen chairs with fabric from pillows she wanted to get rid of (love re-purposing stuff) and we also helped her to clean her chandelier. It looked like a new living room.

Mom and Grandma at lunch

I am so blessed to have my Grandma Farm. She has so much energy and truly finds joy in each and every day. I love any time we get to spend together. It never fails we end up belly laughing about something and I love that. Truly blessed.

The first half of my trip was spent here.....

Minnesota is so beautiful and my Grandma and Grandpa Olson have a BEAUTIFUL home on a lake and its a great retreat. On the 4th, a bunch of our family went up to the lake so I was able to see a lot of family members VERY briefly. I did get LOTS of quality time with Grandma and Grandpa though.

My wonderful Grandparents....love them SO MUCH!!

On Wednesday, my Uncle Bob had extra tickets to the Twins game, so I was able to go see the new stadium. Grandpa and I maneuvered downtown Minneapolis easily and had a BLAST. Plus it was an hour drive from the lake, so we have plenty of time to chat.

I am so grateful I was able to get to Minnesota. Its hard having family SO far away, but you have to make the best of what you have.

Our Ugly House Renovation - Update #2

2011-06-27T18:12:00.001-07:00

In the last couple weeks, we have continued to make progress on the house. Demo was finished, all crown molding, trim, doors and wall paper were removed. We had the plumbing checked out and fixed where necessary, as well as the electrical work. With every week, we are getting more and more anxious about moving into the house.

Enjoy some of the work via pictures.

No more chair rail or STINKY carpet!!!!

We were able to see the original tile in the master that was under the slate.

Yay for new plumbing!

Brick wall gone, new island opening is there!

Wall put up and eventually there will be bar stools here

NO MORE WALLPAPER -- white has never looked so good

And look, the grass is green and growing

Grow baby grow

All old shower tile is gone too

Bathroom demo is complete

I can't wait to see what is coming up this week. I picked up paint samples today so we can start deciding what color to paint the interior of the house.

Family Day

2011-06-26T19:15:00.000-07:00

We had a day with the family yesterday with Alex's family. It was a lot of fun. We started out the day at the zoo, followed by a picnic at Hermann Park. Then we went and saw Cars 2 and we all loved it. We ended the day meeting up at Grimaldis for dinner.

I only took pictures during the picnic.....so here you go.

"Come Find Me!!"

By the way, my nieces have to be two of the most beautiful girls EVER!! Only one is pictured here, but Adriana is gorgeous too!

Uncle Nanny playing hide and seek with Alyssa

Alyssa and Alex

(she will actually smile for pictures now)

Alyssa and Grandma

So much love in this family

Peek a boo

Love her!!

Our Ugly House Renovation - Week 1

2011-06-13T19:53:00.001-07:00

Our new home renovation has officially started, so I want to document our progress every week so at the end of it, I can make a book with a journal log of everything we had done to the house and before and after pictures. If you are not interested in all these details, just disregard any home renovation posts.

I really feel that God has orchestrated our move into this particular house. He keeps allowing me to see random details that prove He paved the way ahead of us. Its not that the house itself is that important, but its the potential life I hope to have in this house. I have prayed over the home we would hopefully start a family in and have been trying to bathe this house with prayer. Will you join me? Please pray for our neighbors and our involvement in this community. Pray that God will use The Leivas in this neighborhood and that God would build Alex and I up in our marriage in this house, as well as prepare us to raise our children in a God-fearing home.

Back to my renovation update....

Week 1 of renovations involved demo....and a lot of it. With this house we are replacing almost all cosmetic items on the interior, as the existing items are beyond repair.

All of this used to be IN our house

The demo we saw take place this week included removing all trim (baseboards, casing and crown molding) throughout the house, in addition to removal of all existing doors. Additionally, they demo-ed the kitchen, bathrooms and entertainment wall in the living room.

Bathroom Demos:

Jack and Jill Bath upstairs

Master Bath (or used to be)

Guest Bathroom/Wardrobe Area

Kitchen

Here are some before and after's of the demo to give some perspective:

Living Room when purchasedLiving Room Currently

Kitchen Wall at Purchase

And Currently

Other Side of the Kitchen Wall from the Living Room

At time of purchase

And currently :)

This is the only wall we are removing somewhat, to open the kitchen to the living room.

For documenting's sake: This week we also met with a Sprinkler Repair guy to fix our 20 year old sprinkler system that had not been run in over 3 years, as well as an ADT guy. A lot of progress in one week for sure!! Those demo guys work SO FAST!!

This week demo continues and the sprinkler guy is returning today because a couple of our zones shorted out. It is going to be a fun 4 months, that is for sure!!

A Call to Action

2011-06-08T10:41:00.001-07:00

We have just started a new study with my Bible Study. We are doing an inductive study of James and I am really looking forward to it. Throughout James, there are 54 calls to action in 108 verses. James is speaking to other believers in his book and challenging and encouraging them to life a life of high morality and spiritual maturity.

We were discussing last night about how our belief is Christ affects all avenues in our life. Faith alone does not automatically give you a fruitful life on earth. We are called to live according to a higher standard, so that God can use us.

I think God is going to challenge those of us in our study in mighty ways. When we were discussing last night, I mentioned how as girls, we tend to justify and rationalize our way out of things. We were challenged to cut the crap! :) In a loving way, we are going to hold each other to the "standards" we set for ourselves. Just like James is calling out fellow believers to a higher standard of living, we need to call each other out to follow through with our convictions and not help each other rationalize ourselves out of our convictions. It may feel like tough love, but in the long run, we will be helping each other to grow in their faith.

Have you ever had someone give you a gut check that might have felt harsh at the time, but turned out to be EXACTLY what you needed to hear? I would love to hear about it.

Demo Time

2011-06-06T10:47:00.000-07:00

They started demo in our house today...it is starting to feel like we are really renovating this house. I can't WAIT to get all the old carpet, floors, cabinets etc out of this house!!

I need to pick out paint colors in the near future. Anyone have any good websites for browsing as far as paint color schemes go? I am beginning to feel overwhelmed because I have to pick colors for the WHOLE house, which makes me feel like I need to pick a theme for the whole house too.

HELP!!!

Welcome home....

2011-06-02T19:15:00.000-07:00

We officially closed on our house on Tuesday and are now in complete renovating mode. Our General Contractor will begin demo in the next few days. It still doesn't even feel like this is our house and we have a long way to go, but Alex and I are enjoying the process. While they are working away at renovating the house, we are going to start clearing out the yard and trying to get it back to working condition. Should be a great season of learning how to take care of a huge yard. First thing is first...get the sprinkler system working and buy a lawn mower. :)

Just as a teaser, here are a couple pics to prove the NEED for renovation.....

Bush the size of our house.....

Ummmm.....enough said.

I have to give a shout out to our realtor, Sam Carratala with Keller Williams. Sam was our neighbor when we first moved onto Sherwin Street. He did an AMAZING job. He sold our house in 3.5 weeks, when most homes in our area are selling in an average of 45 to 60 days!!! Additionally, we moved into a very highly sought after area and he was aggressive in not only helping us find the perfect house, but also aggressive throughout the process through closing. The buyer of our old house and the seller of the new house both had quite a few issues causing potential delays in closing and Sam was great in keeping tabs on where we were in the process and following up with all involved parties. He kept it moving and helped us to close within our timeframe. We are so grateful to have a realtor that we trusted to have our best interest in mind and will use him if we ever need to move again. If you need a realtor, ask me for Sam's contact info...you don't want to use anyone else!!!

You will continue to see posts about our "Ugly home renovation" so stay tuned!!!

Viva Vacation

2011-06-01T19:08:00.000-07:00

We went to Vegas last weekend with The Knechts....we planned this trip so long ago we all honestly can't remember when we decided to go. Alex and I tend to plan our trips out super early, which I love because it allows us to anticipate the trip, save up for it and plan out every detail of the trip. (many of our friends think we are crazy, but failing to plan is planning to fail) Jason and Samantha like to plan early too so this worked out well.

One of the biggest blessings of moving to the townhome on Sherwin Street was that God placed Jason and Samantha on our street. They were the very first people we met while the house was being built and its as though God said "You WILL be friends with these people!!" They are a wonderful couple, very generous and a lot of fun. Jason is a big golfer like Alex, so Samantha and I are very grateful they have each other. Many times when all four of us are together, Samantha and I feel like we are imposing on 'Jason & Alex time.' God has developed Samantha and my friendship through our bible study and she has become a very close friend and I am so grateful for her. We went to San Diego with Jason and Samantha back in 2008 (honestly can't believe it was that long ago) and it was a blast, so we have all been anticipating the next Leiva-Knecht trip. Vegas did not disappoint in.the.least.

We stayed at the Encore and it was BEAUTIFUL!!! Seriously, forgot I was in Vegas and thought I was just at a resort (minus all the smoke and lack of clothing on many of the girls). We arrived early on Friday so that the guys could golf at the Wynn and so Sam and I could get some much needed pool time.

Alex and I above the 18th hole on the Wynn golf course. Alex said the service and the course were both WONDERFUL and he thoroughly enjoyed this course. Apparently, their caddie was phenomenal.

The fun part about Vegas is that you can get dressed up every night and no one thinks anything of it. I loved getting all gussied up. :)

Friday night we ate dinner at Bartalotta in the Wynn. It is an authentic italian seafood restaurant and was soooo good!! We were able to sit at a table outside by the water, so the ambiance totally made the night. We had a relaxed dinner and enjoyed trying some new things and great conversation.

The K-Leivas or L-nechts

(our names don't blend very well)

Hubs and I at dinner

Token Tonya Self Portrait pose :)

(erika always makes fun of me for this pose)

A few cocktails at the Lounge after dinner
After dinner, we gambled a little and lost a little...not a successful gambling night, but a lot of fun. I found a love for teh Wheel of Fortune Slot machine. :)

Saturday was a designated pool day. We reserved a cabana at the pool - and this quickly became everyone's favorite part of the trip. Memorial Day weekend is one of the busiest weekends in Vegas, so the pool on Saturday was BANANAS!! It was nice to have a cabana and not have to worry about losing our place or anything. Plus, they had a great DJ, so we just enjoyed the music and the sun and relaxing. (and LOTS AND LOTS of people watching)

The Knechts - poolside

Hubs and I poolside

The Cabana

(it was really nice to have some shade too cause it was HOT)

Friday night was the ONLY time the whole weekend we left the Encore/Wynn area and headed over to Aria. We had dinner at Julian Serrano - a great tapas restaurant that one of Jason and Samantha's friend suggested.

After dinner we went to a dessert place they had at Aria. They had all these beautifully decorated desserts which in my opinion, usually are no bueno, but these were really good. Alex and I shared a Trio Cheesecake and it was fabulous.

After our sugar coma, we went to see Viva Elvis, the new Cirque de Soliel at Aria. It was....ok....none of us are die hard Elvis fans and it was a lot of singing and not a lot of Cirque type entertaining. Plus we were all WIPED from being at the pool all day, so we were all fighting staying awake. Carly Smithson from American Idol sings in the show, so it was neat to see her. She was the one from Ireland with the "crazy vocals." Plus I loved the military scene...two things I wish I could do...sing and stomp. :)

Sunday a cold front blew through and it was in the 50s. Fortunately, we had already planned for a spa day for the girls, so it didn't impact us. The guys played golf at Cascata in the 50+ mile per hour winds and made the best of it. That evening we went to dinner at Okada and had sushi. It was AMAZING!! So so good. Following dinner we went to see La Reve which was FANTASTIC. The best Cirque de Soleil of the ones I have seen. It was beautifully artistic and such a neat concept. Just loved it...can't wait to see it again!

This dress is not a romper, not sure why it looks like I am wearing shorts.

We had a blast and I came back exhausted from the trip, but VERY refreshed. I love how getting away can allow us to appreciate the normalcy in life. Thanks to The Knecths for another successful trip. Don't know when, but I think we decided our next destination together will be NYC!!

For everything there is a season.....

2011-04-29T06:20:00.000-07:00

So, to say our life is a little busy right now is QUITE the understatement....house hunting is a full time job in itself, not to mention all the paper associated with putting in an offer, getting it accepted, finalizing the sale of our home...very overwhelming.

Well - although the craziest is no where near slowing down...we have sold our house and have an accepted offer on our new house. The house buying process has ended up NOTHING like we imagined, but as always God's plans are bigger and better. We really prayed about the right time to put the house on the market and that He would put us in the right house to hopefully raise our family. I have also been praying for our future neighbors and that God would use us to minister to whatever community we end up in.

Our house sold in 3.5 weeks with a closing date on May 20th, so the minute we had an executed contract we jumped on the house hunting. In fact, our contract with the sale of our home occured at 9 PM on a Monday and by Wednesday of the same week, we put in an offer on what we thought was "the house". Unfortunately, within the second day that house was on the market, it also had 2 other offers and the sellers accepted one of the other offers. Its ok, just means it wasnt meant to be.

We have been looking at homes in the Spring Branch area for the last two years, so we knew exactly the areas we were willing to consider based on the feel of the street, school zonings, market value of homes etc. (I actually have a map of the area -- just ask one of my bible study girls). You know, I thought I was a thorough researching, but Alex is even more so. He is so great about thinking through the whole plan and working out all details etc. I can't tell you how many times we have been discussing prices, expectations etc with our realtor, inspector, general contractor etc where they make a comment about how well Alex understands what things cost and doesnt come into a discussion with some absurd expectation. I love that about him.

Anyways, the area we love happens to be loved by like a million other people, so if a good house comes on the market, it is off the market within 10 days, usually having received multiple offers and usually earning above asking price which is unheard of right now in real estate. Don't believe, look on www.har.com and search Spring Branch. Check out how many homes are listed that are not already Sale Pending or Pending Continue to Show.

We knew we had to be aggressive with our house hunt and be ready to make a competitive offer. Well after "the house" feel through, every house we looked at was either not the right match or accepted a contract with someone else shortly after we looked at the house. Sellers should pay us just to look at their home, because every home we would look at would get an offer from someone else. We began to wonder where God was taking all this...there were literally NO homes in the neighborhood we liked, within our price range, size requirements and we were VERY flexible.

Well there was one house on thet market that needed some TLC and had no pictures of the inside on HAR which is usually a scary sign. Seeing as how there was NOTHING else, we scheduled an appt to go see the house and to our surprise, the bones were GREAT, it had just been cosmetically neglected. We had a general contractor meet us at the house to see if we could make the necessary reonvations within our budget to make it worth investing in this home. After all the doors God had been shutting, we assumed that this house would be too far gone and that God would close this door as well. Maybe God wanted us to spend a year homeless, we didnt know. To our surprise, the renovations are within our budget and the bones of the house are great! Inspection went through smoothly and our option period ended yesterday. So...we have a house, in our FAVORITE neighborhood, zoned to great schools. This house is actually slightly bigger than we had been considering and also has a GREAT backyard and hallelujah, has NO POOL!! Buying a 30 year old pool is a little scary, and pools are too much maintenance.

So now the real fun begins...we are moving into my parents condo during the renovations and living like hobos as I like to say ... we will have a mattress, two chairs and tv trays for 4 months. :) All our furniture in the house gets packed up and sent off to storage the weekend of teh 14th and we close on the sale of our house and the purchase of the new house on May 20th. In the meantime, between work and packing, we have to pick out everything with the General Contractor for the new house, as they want to have everything ordered so they can start demo and renovations immediately. We should hopefully be in the house by end of September God-willing. :)

Good bye to our first home as a married couple....

Hello new house with endless possibilities and dreams of our future.....

Front Yard

Back Yard

You know that I will be posting before and afters of the house once everything is done...in the meantime, all two of my readers will just have to wait.

Until next time, whenever that may be.

PS - 4 weeks until Vegas. :)

Celebrations....

2011-04-10T05:35:00.000-07:00

In the past couple months we have been able to celebrate a lot of great people....

We celebrated Erika's birthday back in the beginning of February. She was born on a WONDERFUL day -- the same day as my Mama. :)

Teeks and I

Birthday Girl!

The hubs and I

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Then...Alex and I celebrated 4 years of marriage!!

Hello ghostly pale skin....hahah

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We also celebrated Stacey's birthday!!!!

It was so fun to get to see her, it had been a LONG TIME!!!

Love my Erika - we haven't spent time together much lately and we are both going through withdrawls!!!

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Then we celebrated my birthday...it was a very fun night. I am so blessed by my friends and family.

The Girls

The Whole Gang at dinner -- one of the best parts of my birthday is that Mom and Dad could come because they LIVE in Houston!!!!

Samantha made me a Mickey Mouse Cake!!!!

The E's

Samantha and I at dinner

Mom and I at PURE Retreat-still need to write a post about that, but it may not happen any time soon. :)

I blame all this celebrating, along with selling our house and now trying to find a place to live with my absence in the blogosphere. No promises that it wont continue as we begin to house hunt. :)

Thanks for those of you that still come back and check on me.

4 years ago today I was getting my "up do"....

2011-03-10T04:00:00.000-08:00

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY ALEX

Today Alex and I celebrate 4 years of marriage. Who would have known that 11 years ago a boy comment on my lotion, and it would begin a friendship that would eventually develop into the best relationship a girl could ever imagine. I have been so blessed to marry such a wonderful man. I always tell him he is like wine (or cheese depending on the day)....he really does just keep getting better over time. He was wonderful before, but he is amazing now. I couldn't imagine my life without Alex. God uses him to teach me so much about life. God uses him to make me laugh on a daily basis, normally more than once a day. I don't know why I am the girl who got to marry Alex Leiva, but I am so grateful that I did.

If you want to stroll down memory lane, you can view our Wedding Book here. Studio 563 were our photographers and they are AMAZING!!

Throughout our relationship, we have been through so many different experiences already and we have only been married for 4 years. I can only imagine all the stories we will have to tell 50 years down the road.

Throughout of relationship so far we have been through so many things...

Gone on sone GREAT TRIPS

Went to Napa Valley

And San Francisco

Went to Las Vegas with BOTH my Sister In Laws!

We have gone to San Diego....TWICE

And stayed at some great hotels

We have cruised the open seas together.

We have made a couple trips to see Mickey too!

WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SPEND TIME WITH FRIENDS, OLD AND NEW, AND FAMILY

WE WERE ABLE TO MEET OUR NIECE, ALYSSA HAVEN.

...AND WE MIGHT HAVE HAD A LITTLE FUN ALONG THE WAY.

"Can't see me"

I love this man I am married to more than I knew I could....

He helps carry me through the challenging times by encouraging me....

He coaches me in many ways....

He made me a Cougar football fan.....

He plans the BEST surprises........

He LOVES his family and my family as much as I do......

But most importantly, I know he loves me no matter what....

What will the next year hold for The Leivas??? God only knows, but I expect wonderful memories as always.

Happy Anniversary Leiva.

Wow.....

2011-03-09T05:35:00.000-08:00

Ok, so February & March have been CRAZY and I have ALL these great posts, but literally NO TIME to post and I have pictures I need to upload, but when you work full time and have the excessive amount of stuff going on outside of work like we do right now, it is just not going to happen.

Here are some of the things The Leivas have been up to since February 1st:

My parents MOVED to The Woodlands!!! - It has been SO WONDERFUL being able to see them at least once a week so far. I love that they are here and knows that our relationships as a family will just continue to grow. I have the best parents and am so glad they are friends too!
We celebrated Mom's birthday that first weekend in February, which was also their move in weekend.
Celebrated Erika's Birthday :)
Massages at the Houstonian for me; lots of golf for Alex
I went to an AMAZING Women's Retreat at the Hyatt Lost Pines with Mom, Amanda and my friend Samantha (I need to write a whole post about what God taught me from that retreat...it was SO FREEING. Don't worry its in the cue). It was a WONDERFUL WEEKEND!!
Celebrated my wonderful Dad..I wanted to devote a whole blog to him - I still may.
Celebrated my birthday with my family and close friends
Celebrated Stacey!!
Bible Study throughout
Trying to workout a lot
Tried a new eating regime called PALEO and I LOVE IT. It has kind of had to take the back seat the last five days out of convenience - read below and you will understand why. But I need to write a post just about PALEO because I think it is amazing...SO MUCH ENERGY. Again, in the cue.
Plus February is my busiest month of the year, so I was working late at least two nights a week.

Oh and did I mentioned, we are putting our house on the market ?!?!?!?!?! So in between everything listed above we have been working to get our house show ready. I will definately be posting about this new journey we are on soon!! We are pretty clean people, so I didn't anticipate it taking very long to do touch up painting etc, but we used this opportunity to clean out anything and everything we own, so it has been a TON OF WORK!!! But will definately be worth it. We have really prayed over the timing and we feel this is the right time to sell the house -- so God will have to handle the rest which is great with me. If you don't mind, please lift up a prayer for us though, that the process will be a smooth one. (and ideally, a quick one ;) )
We are taking pictures of the house today for HAR
We will list the house next Thursday, St. Patty's Day! If you know anyone who might be interested in a beautiful townhome (stand alone) in a GREAT PART of TOWN {3 min from The Heights, Galleria, Downtown and within a mile of Memorial Park} - please send them my contact information, it is at the end of this post.

So that is my excuse for being slightly vacant. Happy Wednesday!!

Tonya Leiva (tonya.leiva@gmail.com)

Nail Polish Swap

2011-02-11T05:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday Everybody!! Anyone watching American Idol this season??? I am LOVING Steven Tyler. He makes the show for sure.

Anyways, Meredith over at Sweet T Family hosted a Nail Polish Swap a couple of weeks ago and today is the debut of our swap. I was partnered up with Lindsay. She doesn't have a blog, so I figured I would show both sides of our swap. :)

She bought me Cuckoo for This Color...and I really dig it.

I took this pick of it this morning but it was too dark and since my iPhone doesnt have a flash, this is the best I could do. Can you even see the bottle?

Here is a much better picture where you can actually see the color. Fun huh?

I was debating and debating on what to get Lindsay and then I found this little gem. I figured four mini bottles would be REALLY fun because you get to try 3 new colors. I mean, who really uses up a whole bottle of nail polish on a regular basis??

The Texas line is the new OPI line...they have some really neat silvers and tans.

This swap thing was a lot of fun. I may have to host one myself one day. Meredith has also down a scarf swap a couple times in the past.

Thanks Meredith for hosting!!

Have a great weekend....enjoy the warmer weather. I had to scrape my windows this morning and my fingers are just now starting to have feeling again. Hopefully that will be the last window scraping for the year. :) (praying that is not wishful thinking)

2nd Annual Bible Study Retreat

2011-02-09T05:51:00.000-08:00

Have I mentioned before that I am part of an amazing group that blesses me each and every week? Back in the fall of 2007, we started a bible study group and have since called ourselves Houston W.O.W. Bible Study. We have a VERY eclectic, WONDERFUL group and I love how God uses our differences to unite us as a group. Our group ages in range, some have kids, some are married, amongst our group we have lawyers, accountants, advertising marketers, teachers, students, cardio sonogrammers (is this at all right Melissa), HR personnel, bankers, and list goes on and between us we attend 4 plus churches. I just love it. No one, but God, could bring this random group of women together and I am SO BLESSED.

We went on our second retreat in January and it was a great weekend. We try and keep the weekend pretty laid back, focused more on fellowship than on structured time. Since we all have lots of responsibilities, it is really nice to have a weekend to get away and not worry.

This year we stayed at an AMAZING beachhouse in Galveston and it worked out PERFECTLY! We will probably be using this house again in the future.

Here are some pics from our weekend....

The Whole Gang at Retreat

(Kim, Marg, CL, Christy, me, Erika, Melissa, Sam and Amanda)

We walked down the beach a little bit on Saturday but it was pretty chilly

(we all decided January is a little too cold for retreat and will be moving future retreats to the summer I think :) )

The Lawyers

Me and Teeks

Kim and Mel

We had a fabulous time. One of the highlights of the trip was Just Dance on the Wii. Just as entertain to play as to watch. :)

We just started our next study and discussed week one last night. We are doing "Discerning the Voice of God" by Priscilla Shirer and so far I am LOVING it!! So challenging already.

I was trying to remember how many different studies we have done....I think 8 maybe. Let's count -- started with Ester at HFBC in fall of 2007, then in 2008 Breaking Free by Beth Moore, then we wanted something lighter, so we decided to read The New Eve (not good!!), then moved on to Essentials from GBC in College Station maybe, 2009 brought us 2 Timothy, then we did a personal challenge for the summer and then Revelations with Beth Moore at HFBC, in 2010 we studied Beloved Disciple, then Captivate My Heart by Laura Wilcox. (was there something in between those two?? I can't remember) -- so that puts us at 9 completed so far.

Again, I am so grateful for this group of women and look forward to seeing the group continue to grow. We started with around 3 and now our group list is up to like 18. :) Praise the Lord for knowing our needs and fulfilling all His promises.

I hope and pray your Monday is blessed.

Happy Valentines Day to me...

2011-02-08T12:51:00.000-08:00

Hubs just surprised me with these for Valentine's Day....

What a great surprise considering we don't normally do VDay gifts!! Thanks boo!!

Christmas Pics....better late than never

2011-02-07T17:47:00.000-08:00

Here are some random pics from Christmas with Alex's family.

Alyssa and Alex playing with her new kitchen

Opening Presents

That hair is so CURLY!!

Alyssa showing us her "monies"

Cutesy Tootsy

The Fam

Recent Creations

2011-02-07T14:32:00.000-08:00

Erika's birthday was last week and she is so graciously modeling my most recent creations. I had plans to give her a cooking theme gift including the apron seen below. Didn't it turn out cute?? I am VERY proud of the apron. Erika's future sister in law was like, "Where did you buy that? Its so cute." It was so fun to be able to say -- "I made it. I will have to make a tutorial for the apron one of these days.

Erika mentioned at bible study retreat that she would like a bible study bag, so she got both. :)

I am still loving sewing and counting down the days until the hubs comes home and says ... "Ok, its time to buy you the sewing machine." My birthday is just around the corner....hint hint hint.

I am working on a couple other projects, but do not want to expose them yet. :)

Happy Monday!!

Happy Birthday Alyssa

2011-01-10T18:31:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Alyssa's Birthday right after Thanksgiving. I can't believe she is already two....scary how fast time goes by.

The Leivas

Mrs. Leiva #2 (as my MIL says), George, Adriana and Alyssa

This girl LOVES sweets

She was VERY overwhelmed to have everyone staring at her.

Appropriate etiquette in chip eating -- first you must cut the chips with a knife and fork

(Alyssa and her Uncle "Nany")

Alyssa and her daddy

Love her so much - even though she still wont say my name

Alyssa and Grandma

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl. You will be 3 before we bat an eye.

Last Holiday in the Hill Country

2011-01-10T18:15:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving and a whole week at Mom and Dad's over the holidays. Christmas was a little bittersweet because it will be our last holiday at Mom and Dad's in Horseshoe Bay.

Although it is a little sad that we no longer have our "getaway" place....I am only sad for a second, because the reason it is our last time in the hill country is because Mom and Dad sold their house and are moving BACK TO HOUSTON!!! It is still very unreal, but I am SO looking forward to having them back in town where we can see them more often. :)

The Whole Gang at Thanksgiving

My beautiful Mama!!

Skidder

Boo and Me

Apparently, I only took pictures of the dogs...way to take pics for memory sake T.

Skid and his dog bed

Brenna - I promise she is not mad at me.

Spencer and his girlfriend Bailey

Scripture Memory

2011-01-05T10:30:00.001-08:00

Last year, my mentor that I was meeting with challenged me to work on memorizing scripture.

I have been working on scripture memory since high school, but I always lose the notecards or forget the verse and it was never very organized. My mentor's method is VERY easy and works really well. Just go out and buy an index spiral of 50 index cards. (you know those index card sets that come on a spiral -- I got mine at Target this year and Office Depot last year) On the front write 2011 and add your memory verse once a week. If you have a large passage you want to memorize, split it between weeks. Your weekly memory verse should be 1-2 verses, something that is managable. Your verse can be anything really....if a certain verse touches you, pick that one, if you are at a loss, just pull a random one. If verses come to mind, but you are not ready for your next "pick" yet, just start jotting them down on the back cover of the spiral.

Then memorize away. They are easy to transport. At home, I stand mine up in the kitchen when I am cooking, or leaning on the mirror when I am getting ready and at work it is leaning on my computer. I write the address on the front and the verse on the back so that I can't cheat. :)

Here is mine for this year....

There is also a website which I have mentioned before called Scripture Typer. Here you can save your memory verses and type them out - so if you are a visual learner, this is a great way to practice too.

I picked my first verse for 2011 and I tried to pick one that I hope to be my theme verse/challenge for the year. I picked this one:

"Finally, brothers & sisters,

whatever is true, whatever is noble,

whatever is right, whatiever is pure,

whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable

- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me,

or seen in me - put it into practice.

And the God of Peace will be with you."

~Philippians 4:8-9

I want this to be my theme verse because God has been teaching me a lot about evaluating the items in my life that are beneficial and those that are idle and unnecessary. I feel that if I can try and focus on only the things listed above it will give me a litmus test to make sure I am on track.

Anyone want to take the challenge with me? We could get together a couple times this year to test each other on our scripture memory. I am going into this year praying and expecting God to grow me and change me and I know that He will come through in ways I could never imagine.

Whip Lash

2011-01-04T10:36:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love the new year. I love the potential of a full year of unknowns and the feeling that anything is possible and change is inevitable. I always have great intentions and pie in the sky plans and of course they do not all come to fruition, but the challenge alone is usually beneficial.

I feel like I have New Year Whiplash right now. I am excited it is the new year, but it already feels like I am a boxing bag and I am just getting hit with thing after thing after thing. So, now I am like --"Seriously...2011, can you at least let me take a seat before you rip me a new one?" :)

2011 could be a very exciting year for Alex and I. We are going to put our house on the market in March, so will hopefully be moving into a new home this year. A lot of 2011 is out of our control and we have no idea on timing, so I had already assumed Gpd would teach us about fully relying on Him. Well -- on top of all of that, we have had a string of car issues beginning Saturday -- Happy new Year to us. :/ So it has put a slight damper with impending car expenses we were hoping to put towards a new house. I am back at work today for the first time since before Christmas, so I feel a little out of whack and they also moved me, so I am in a new office trying desperately to remember where I left off when I left.

Anyways, so my 2011 hasnt started with just excited anticipation, but more so with excitement but a little bit of hesitation because of the last couple days. Fortunately, I am not, will not and should not be in control. Thank goodness, God is in control, His timing is perfect and He will work out everything perfectly for those who love Him.

Here are my New Year's Goals:
1. Praying that God will grow me in a new and mighty way this year -- with a renewed and refreshed Spirit.
2. Eat healthier, exercise more. God really changed my mindset on health back in spring of 2009 and I working to get back to that lifestyle again.
3. Clean out my house. :)
4. Sew more!!!

Happy New Year's to You!!

So much to be thankful for...Thanksgiving Part 1

2010-12-16T10:54:00.000-08:00

Life has been so crazy, but I really want to get some of these pictures up from Thanksgiving and Sonia's visit this time....

We are blessed beyond words to have a great family and lately we have been able to spend SO MUCH quality time with them. I love it and can't get enough time with everyone. Plus, Alyssa keeps getting cuter and cuter and changes SO fast that I don't want to miss too much of it.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we went to the zoo. It was a great visit. The new African Safari was not open yet, but we did get to see two baby elephants.

Ready to hit the zoo

This child smiles ALL the time, but the MINUTE the camera is pointed at her, the smiles disappears....supposedly she gets this from her Dad.

We went the petting zoo and they have an area where you can pet the goats and brush them. We gave Alyssa the brush and of course the first thing she tried to do was brush her own hair. Eeewww....Jennifer was quick though and I don't think the brush actually touched Alyssa's head.

She wasn't too interested or comfortable petting the goats. But she humored us for a couple of minutes. She was much more interested in playing on the playground.

Granma got some much needed time with her girls

Adriana and her best friend, "the cell phone" haha

We were all starving when we left the zoo, so we went to Grand Lux Cafe.

Alyssa LOVES Alex's Grandma -- who could blame her.

Here she is playing with Grandma

I made Spencer a Christmas Scarf -- ya know...to get him in the spirit too.
So cute!

We had the WHOLE gang, minus Mauri for Thanksgiving. We missed you Mauri!!

It was so fun to all be together -- Christmas will be VERY small this year.

Mags and Sonia

Alex carving the turkey

So handsome (and manly I might add)

My wonderful sister in law

My cutie patootie husband and Spencer in the middle of the action of course

LOVE this PIC

My MIL is so beautiful

Sonia and George

Spencer - Upclose and personal

Hope you are enjoying your holidays too and getting lots of quality time with your family and friends.

So blessed with a great family

To be continued -- still have The Olson side of Thanksgiving as well

So much to blog about .... so little time/energy

2010-12-08T06:07:00.000-08:00

Hi all --

Nothing exciting in this blog. I have like 7 or 8 blogs that need to get written, but life has been SO hectic the last 5-6 weeks. Just dropping a line so you know that I am alive and well, just VERY busy. Hopefully I can get some blogs put together soon.

We had bible study last night. I am SO blessed by the women in my study and so grateful for them. We are going through a study by Laura Wilcox called "Capture My Heart" and it has been one of my faovrite studies ever. She is here in Houston and we have had the pleasure of having her attend our study twice now. I am grateful God continues to bless us all through this study. If anyone, well any WOMAN, wants something to do on Tuesday nights let me know. There is not a better group of women anywhere.

Ciao for now.

Gotta have a pic of me and the niece monkey....she is talking up a storm, but wont say my name. She knows it, but wont say it. Sometimes she calls me "Hey" and sometimes "Ti Ti" which I think sounds like pee pee and I am thinking it might stick. :/ Its ok though because I love her and her sister more than I knew I could...I can only imagine how much more you feel when its your own baby.

Isn't she precious?!?!?

She loves "Pincer"

Peppermint Fudge Cupcake Jars

2010-12-01T06:55:00.000-08:00

I saw this post today over here and had to share...but don't be surprised if you don't get one of these as a Christmas Present. Anyone know a great place to get these mason jars at a cheap price?

Anyone want to come over and have a baking party with me? :)

Enjoy!!

Christmas Cards

2010-11-16T10:27:00.000-08:00

I absolutely LOVE Christmas Cards. Every year I say I am going to plan ahead and have everything ready before Thanksgiving and then November rolls around and we get busy with the 10 plus birthdays we have between Halloween and Thanksgiving.

This year I even had a Photo shoot planned with Erika for the weekend of Halloween, but Alex is really big on wanting Christmas Pics to look christmas-y and it was stinking hot on Halloween, so we will be doing a photo shoot in Horseshoe Bay over Thanksgiving.

I am also checking out the different options for Christmas Cards and this year I think we will be using Shutterfly. I have used them for invitations before and also to store some of my photos online. They are pretty affordable and have a lot of options to choose from.

If you blog and want to get 50 free Christmas Cards check out the link below.

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

I love love love looking through Shutterfly to see ALL the options. Its like registering for classes -- your options are endless and you know any result will be a good one, but you still have to decide on ONE for the year!! I always wait until I have the picture in mind so everything can coordinate. I can not WAIT until we have a little Leiva because Christmas Cards with kiddos on them ALWAYS look cuter.

Here are some good ones...

Photo Card --- although I love the pics...I think a Christmas Card without some sort of a note is silly. I like hearing how everyone is doing and what the highs and lows were from the previous year.

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/holly-frame-christmas-5x7-folded-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93476

Some super cute flat photo cards though.

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/retro-tree-christmas-5x7-photo-card-5x7-photo?sortType=1&storeNode=93480

Cutie - patootie....

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/joyful-world-religious-5x7-photo-card-5x7-photo?sortType=1&storeNode=93480

I love the religious ones too. This one is BEAUTIFUL!! Hmmm...debated not posting this one in case I use it. :)

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/in-his-name-religious-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=60217

Have you started thinking about Christmas Cards yet??? I can't wait to get yours in the mail. (*wink wink*) Definately started to get into the holiday season.

I went to the Nutcracker Market last Friday and am currently listening to Christmas Music....I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!!!

Gig Em + Birthday Visit + a Bumble Bee

2010-11-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was VERY busy but a whole lot of fun. Saturday we went to College Station to go to the A&M vs. Tech football game. It was so fun to be back in College Station and we were able to hit up a couple of our favorite spots including Blue Baker for Breakfast and La Bodega for dinner.

Erika and I on our way to Blue Baker

During the game -- the weather was PERFECT!!!

"Now forming at the North End of Kyle Field....
....the Fightin Texas Aggie Band"

We met up with The Hurlberts and The Almost Savatsky's after the game to have a Mexican Martini and Guacamole Queso at La Bodega. It was delish as usual.

Jeff was getting picked on for ordering a Mexican Martini, so he was drinking out of the shaker. :)

Love The Waters

Sunday we relaxed for the most part and in the afternoon we headed over to Scott and Amanda's to surprise Amanda with her birthday present. :)

Excited to continue the celebration this weekend

From there we headed over to Sugar Mill to go trick or treating with our nieces.....

It was hard to get this little Bumble Bee to sit still.

The Ladies

My beautiful niece Adriana -- stunning isn't she

Blurry picture of the boys

(and Spencer and Penny)

We have another busy weekend again this weekend -- lots of great things though.

Until next time - love you all!!

(PS - does anyone actually read this anymore?? I think I lost my readers with my lack of blogging over the last year)

Happy Birthday to my beautiful Sister In Law!

2010-11-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMANDA!!!

I am so blessed to have you in my life. You play so many roles and life would not be the same without you. You are my sister in Christ, my friend, my encourager and challenger, one of my favorite people to celebrate ANYTHING with (specifically YOU this week) and best of all you are my sister in law too!!!

Thank you for your many blessings. You are such a great friend, so thoughtful. Always teh first to laugh with me, celebrate with me or cry with me and I appreciate that so much.

My prayer for you today (and this week) is that you feel overwhelming loved and appreciated. I pray that God blesses you with a full heart knowing that you impact many people in great ways every day. I love you sister and LOVE knowing we will go through everything together because we are family.

Happy Birthday! Love.

Celebrating Erin!!

2010-10-28T10:51:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to one of my most precious friends!!!

Many people have asked how Erin and I even met and we both agree that we had a God ordained meeting, there is nothing in our lives that would have suggested our paths would cross (maybe running at memorial)....here is our story....

My last year in college I went to my Mom's hair stylist at the time whose name is Nikki. This in itself is unique because I only went to Nikki once and mom only went to Nikki for like 6 months and it just happened to be the one time I have EVER gone to my Mom's hair lady. Anyways, I was about to graduate from A&M and asked Nikki if she had any recommendations of hair stylist in Houston and she recommended two different people and I picked to try out Erin and it was love at first sight. :)

A few months after I started going to see Erin, we were talking about how we both wanted to get into a women's bible study, so we decided(along with Erika - who I had gotten to start going to Erin too) to go to Beth Moore that fall, as she was starting a new study on Esther. Erin has one of the most genuine hearts to love and serve the Lord in her day to day walk. She is such a blessing and her energy and joy always overflows to those around her. It is hard to believe that we have now been friends for almost 4 years. :) All because of hair ... God is wonderful that way.

For Erin's birthday, a few of her closest gal pals made a night of it and stayed at Hotel Sorella and ran around CityCentre for the evening. It was a lot of fun and a great getaway. (even though we were only 8 miles from my house)

Here are some pics of our celebration:

Erin and Amanda Sunday morning on our way to brunch

Christy and I at Yard House

We got to see Jenny!! She had gotten married and had a baby since the last time I saw her. :)

Manders and Erin
Dancing Queens at Monalisa

There is so much hair in this picture and I am including Amanda in that comment because her hair is longer than she has EVER had it!!!

Haha - Erin was trying to not have squinty eyes for the pic

Definately not squinty ;)

Dinner at Ruggles Green

John and Dustin, the managers, were AMAZING!! Give this place some business.

Plus the food is AMAZING.

In the elevator, ready to hit CityCentre

Happy Birthday Erin!!! We love you SOOOO MUCH!!

This year we're running!

2010-10-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

My mom has been cancer free for 10 years now. We attend the Race for the Cure every year. Since it was Mom's 10 year anniversary, she decided she wanted to run this year. Mom is NOT a runner. She broke her leg in high school, so that ruined running for her, but she wanted to set a more challenging goal.

Here we are pre-race....

My wonderful family supporting Mom and all the other cancer survivors and in memory of those who lost the battle...

Mom and I upclose

My mom did SO good. She ran pretty much the whole thing, only walking for water breaks. At the end of the race they have all the survivors run through their own finish line. They pass out flowers and celebrate that they have survived breast cancer. It was really neat -- I was crying watching Mom run through. I was so proud of her for running the whole thing and I am grateful that God allowed her to beat cancer. I have the best Mom and friend in the world and am blessed by her everyday!

Mom and I post race
Go mama! Go mama!

I had to post this pic of Bailey. How do you not love a dog like this??

(Amanda, this one needs to go on the wall)

Blessings to you all.

Sew many gift ideas...

2010-10-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

I am still LOVING sewing...can't get enough of it. I actually need to cut back on sewing and start running more. :) I can only do so much from 5:30 PM - sleep -- so running has been taking the back seat and boy can I tell. Wish I had more time to so, but its ok. My list of ideas just continues to grow and I knock things off the list as I can.

Here are a couple of my latest creations....

PS - my favorite part about sewing is all the great gift ideas...so, chances are if you know me and get a gift from me in the near future, it will be something handmade with love. :)

For Erin's birthday I made her a bible study bag. I checked it and it fits our current book and a bible and journal. In the future, I would make it a little bigger to fit "beth moore" size bible studies and would also add a pocket on the inside in addition to the outside.

Bible study bag (technically a Library Tote - but I don't go to the library much)

I love all the different patterns...makes me so happy!!

I also made some fall placemats. I gave some to my Mom and some to my Grandma - well she hasn't received them yet, but they are on their way. :)
I am loving getting to pick out all this fun fabric. Makes me happy.

Thanks for the tip on Hobby Lobby too. They have a GREAT selection.

I still have SO MUCH to learn, but I am loving this. Since I have to give Erika back her sewing machine at some point, I have already told Alex that for Christmas I would like a Sewing machine/embroidery machine combo. I would love to hear your recommendations and comments around what brand to get etc etc.

I was looking at this one...

http://www.brother-usa.com/homesewing/ModelDetail.aspx?ProductID=lb6800prw

Any thoughts??

All the reviews I have read said its really better to purchase one with a 5 x 7 hoop rather than a 4 x 4 hoop, but I haven't found one with a 5 x 7 hoop for under $1000.00 and that ain't happening at this point. If you have any tips I would LOVE THEM!!

Have you seen me?

2010-10-14T05:42:00.000-07:00

No point to this post really, but I found some pics that I am not sure if I ever posted and I am too lazy to look back to see if I have. If this is a repeat - lo siento.

Erika and I enjoying the 80s band at The Continental Club for Lindsey's Birthday

(Erika - fake smile much?)

Love these Girls

Stace Face, Teeks and Linds

Jumping back aways -- at the pool with my niece and SIL

No, you can't have my phone

Beatiful Leiva Ladies

Modeling in the baby pool with her 'coffee'

Erika and I on our date night to see Rent

Eating at Cazadores

Have a blessed Thursday!

Skimming the Fat

2010-10-06T05:38:00.000-07:00

This has been the phrase in our household lately, courtesy of my wonderful husband. Alex is CONSTANTLY monitoring our spending, looking for fat we can remove that is just excess, as well as areas we can make more of a priority. Additionally, I am trying to do that with my stuff in the house. Cleaning out stuff, re-organizing, donating that which we can etc etc

Well I was thinking about this a couple of weeks ago and God is currently skimming the fat in my spiritual life as well. I have been SO convicted about the 'excess' in my life. Where is my time focused? Where are my conversations/thoughts/actions focused? Is it in a way that always points to the Lord or not?? Well if I am truly honest, I am not sure how much attention God gets between my thoughts and actions around busyness at work, busyness at home, busyness doing fun things, busyness in trying to eat and exercise a certain way. Now all of those things are mostly a necessity and most are not bad things. We need to work, we need to eat healthy and exercise, we need to spend time with family and friends -- BUT ALL those things can in one way or another point to the Lord. It is all about my focus in all those things that matter and that I allow God to be my navigator - He needs to determine my steps rather than my inviting him to sit in the passenger seat in my life.

So, the last couple weeks have been interesting. I have been trying to filter through my life and see what areas are excess, or not necessary at all. What am I portraying to others? Am I loving and non judgemental? Am I patient and selfless? Not surprisingly, as I am praying for God to skim the fat, I am being challenged and tested, and not like a little ropes course, but more like being thrown into an iron man. In these challenges, God has revealed that my words have become somewhat harsh...now if you know me, I am not a mean person and would never say something hurtful intentionally, but God has shown me the little ways that words can have a BIG impact, good or bad. So, I am working on that for sure!!!

I feel like I have been going 90 to nothing trying to do everything right, but not making any progress. Like I am trying to tread water in quicksand. I was telling the girls at bible study last night that I feel like I spread so thin that I am useless to everyone...keep in mind, I know that I am not useless and I am being a little overdramatic but this is what blogs are for...to word vomit when I need to.

I am not sure if I am making any sense or if anyone can relate or if anyone even reads this....but thats ok. This post is the beginning of what I am hoping will become a heart change. We just started a new study called Capture my Heart by Laura Wilcox and it is all about the many facets of the heart and how they impact everything!! I am really looking forward to it and know that God is intentionally teaching me this lesson while teaching me about my heart and what it looks like to be wholly devoted to God.

I am praying that God will help me to have eyes to see the areas I need to skim the fat. Teach me how to be wholly devoted to him in all avenues and paths I cross. Linds mentioned this funeral she attended. She said that a bunch of people got up to speak regarding the man who had just passed away and how they all had the EXACT same overlying theme -- he loved the Lord, loved people and loved his family and spent his life serving in that way. He was the SAME person no matter where you crossed him. That is what I hope to achieve through this time of trials.

Thanks for listening. Let me know if this makes no sense. Pray for me as God skims my fat. I would love to hear your feedback and see if God is challenging anyone else in the same way.

These are some verses that God has brought to my attention lately...

"Finally brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things." -Phil. 4:8

"Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear."
-Eph. 4: 29

Erika re-iterated this one last night from our bible study as well...
"Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life." -Prov. 6:5

Have a blessed day!

We heart California...

2010-10-01T05:54:00.000-07:00

Alex and I went back to California (our favorite vacation spot second to Disneyworld of course). We began the weekend in San Diego, which was a great surprise from the hubs, and ended the weekend in LA for the UH vs. UCLA. (I will not be talking about the game in this post)

While in San Diego, we started out by going to Balboa Park where they have all their museums, parks, and a lot of areas to walk around. We walked around there for a couple of hours and went to the Museum of Natural History.

Neither Alex nor I are big museum people, but we figured sometimes museums are kind of interesting. The Museum of Natural History was actually kind of a bust....but we did come across a Cougar, so Alex got a picture with the school mascot. :)

Alex and Shasta

After we were done wandering around Balboa Park, we head north of San Diego to La Jolla. The weather was WONDERFUL and I was actually a little chilly in my dress. We ate at Sushi on the Rock in La Jolla. We were able to sit outside and could see the ocean. Plus the sushi was SO good. After lunch we headed down by the water....

We were looking out at the water and I kept telling Alex that I thought I saw seals and he kept telling me that they were ducks. (well there were ducks, but I swore I kept seeing these seals popping up out of the water) Well a couple minutes later, what do we hear, but a seal.

On those rocks way behind Alex, there were a couple seals and TONS of pelicans. Plus, if you look closely, there is a person the water swimming laps. Just swimming with the seals. I think they may do a triathlon here or train for one, because there were buoys marking distances out in the water. I could NOT imagine swimming in that water, it looks FREEZING!!

We stayed down by the water for quite a while. There were all these little crabs everywhere and Alex TOTALLY freaked me out suggesting that I almost stepped on one. I seriously almost fell into the water. Not a funny joke. You don't mess with crabs. ha

From La Jolla we headed a little farther north to The Grand Del Mar Resort and was it ever Grand. We had the TIME of our lives and decided we needed to get back to this resort sometime, possibly for our 5 year wedding anniversary which also is the year we turn 30. (scary how close that is.....)

This resort was amazing for the breath taking views, great rooms/pool/golf course etc, but what REALLY blew us away was the service. I have NEVER encountered such amazing service. From the bell hop to the management, this resort has it down. I am so glad that this was the first of MANY stays at The Grand Del Mar. Alex kept saying they picked a perfect name because everything about the resort was exactly that... "GRAND!"

Wednesday Night we got to get all dressed up and eat at their 5 Star/ 5 Diamond restaurant onsite called Addisons. We had a very romantic table overlooking the backlit fareway. It was perfect. In between each course, they would bring a particular food that would cleanse your palet for the next course. It was a very unique experience but wonderful! Again, the service was stellar. Their wine selection included 35,000 wines!! Bananas I tell you.

All dressed up and ready to go!!

We went to the bar after dinner and sat by the fire and talked for hours. It was wonderful. My hubs has to be one of the best trip planners. As I mentioned, this portion of the trip was a surprise. Thanks Alex for a great surprise. Love you boo.

Here is random pick of our room... I am standing at the balcony and you are looking into the bathroom.

Other side of the room with the couch and balcony. The weather was awesome. We left our balcony open the whole time we were there!

Thursday morning we woke up bright and early. We had room service brought to the room and then Alex went off to play a round of golf and I went off for 90 minutes of heaven -- what a great massage. Even got a work out in there.

Here is our breakfast -- pastries, fruit smoothie, bagel, omelette, OJ and of course a Diet coke for me. :)

This brought me back to our wedding night. The Waters ordered a full breakfast to be brought to our room the morning after our wedding. It made me feel like I was in pretty woman. Great memory -- Thanks Waters for being such a huge blessing to Alex and I in big and small ways. :) I digress....lets get back on track...

Thursday evening we headed from our wonderful resort northbound to LA. We laid low Thursday night, because LA traffic is LAME. Seriously...how do you people live in LA with that traffic. M.I.S.E.R.A.B.L.E. If I lived there I would get a motorcycle.

Friday we met up with Steven and his friend Javi went to Universal Studios. It was a lot of fun and again the weather was ridiculously awesome.

Why hello chunky butt -- gotta love pictures to remind you how you REALLY look. Time to get back into working out hard core and eating boring food. :/ But not until after this weekend -- too much fun stuff going on to worry about it right now.

This is as close as we got to any movie stars...Kevin Bacon, Tom Hanks and other guy (Bill Paxton, had to look him up) haha

While we were at Universal and on the Backlot Tour (which we barely made, the last one of the day is in spanish, so we were worried we were going to have to have Javi translate for us), they were taping Desperate Housewives. I couldn't see any stars, just security guards and a house decorated up for Halloween.

Saturday we headed over to Old Pasadena - they have all these cute shops and restaurants. We got to get a little shopping in.....Alex even went with me to H&M. We went to Barneys Beanery which was on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives for their Chili. They actually sell a $200 something chili dog -- it comes with a chili dog and a bottle of Don Perignon. haha

I didnt try the chili but everyone said it was good. We hung out there for quite a while watching the other games on that day and meeting up with all the other Cougars in Pasadena for the game.

Then we headed over to the Rose Bowl for gametime!! They actually get to tailgate on grass which is nice. They had a good showing and it was a lot of fun. The game itself -- not so fun. We love you Kace & Cotton and hope you heal up quick.

Leivas in UCLA

Roomies for life

PS - Any cute, single, catholic ladies looking for a man??? :) Steven needs a bride (as his mom likes to remind me)

That pretty much sums up our trip. Always nice to get away with my favorite travel buddy.

20 in 2010

2010-09-29T14:35:00.000-07:00

Ever have one of those days where you are just done and ready to go home?? Well I am at the point right now, so I am going to start this 100 blog that Meredith brought back to life...

We will see if I ever actually finish it....ok its lunch on Friday and I am just going to do 20 things because I gotta get back to work and don't have time to do the full 100.

1. I listen to the Wicked channel on Pandora almost everyday at work -- broadway makes me happy!

2. I am a big time hugger....it is very common for me to hug Alex until he makes me let him go. He has gotten pretty used to it and now just stands there until my moment has passed. :)

3. I thought about Jenn Crouse today -- I was writing a note about my "heart friends" you know the ones that know your true heart, your spiritual heart. The ones you can share anything with and NEVER worry about judgement etc, and that even if you dont talk for MONTHS, you still feel connected to....well Jenn is one of those.

4. My mom has been cancer free for 10 years and we are RUNNING the Race for the Cure on Saturday for the first time. We have gone every year but one ever since she was diagnosed, but we normally walk. This time we are running! Go mama! Go mama!

5. I am a girl blessed with AMAZING friends...seriously....I would be blessed with just one of them and God has blessed me with countless friends.

6. My brother's friends in college thought Amanda and I were lesbian lovers.

7. My way to detox after a stressful day is running.

8. My nieces are the most beautiful girls in the world.

9. I really need to stop drinking diet sodas

10. If you grabbed my headphones when I am running you could very easily hear music from Glee, Eminem, praise and worship, country, Cee-Lo Green (was part of Gnarls Barkley), rap or random music from So You Think You Can Dance.

11. I love seeing Erin Monaghans latest creations at Sweet Euphoria...she is very talented!

12. I have the best dog ever -- seriously....my dog is better than yours.

13. Fall is the beginning of my absolute favorite time of year. October through Christmas Eve rock my world.

14. Sewing is quickly becoming a fabulous hobby.

15. My favorite food is mexican. I could eat fajitas and margaritas every day.

16. I am terrified of being huge when I am pregnant.

17. We are going to Vegas in May with The Knechts...it is going to be SO MUCH FUN!!!

18. My parents are on their way to Houston right now and I can NOT WAIT for dinner tonight. I have the best family in the entire world. On both sides -- very blessed.

19. My brother in law is moving in with us on Monday for a while -- I am looking forward to having someone there in the evenings until Alex gets home. :)

20. I love broadway -- NCY is on my bucket list and I plan to see as many plays as humanly possible. I want Chicago to start touring..I love that one.

Don't know how I would ever get to 100. By Friday, my brain can't handle that much. :)

Have a great weekend!!

Question for my Crafty Ladies out there....

2010-09-22T15:11:00.000-07:00

Who has the most affordable, yet decent selection of fabrics....

1. JoAnns
2. Michaels
3. Walmart

Any other places??

Just a basic cotton or quilting fabric.

Thanks!!

Sewing Projects....

2010-09-21T05:59:00.000-07:00

This is a little delayed, but I had to wait until my package made it to Bri in South Africa before I could post. She is very nosy and would have totally cheated and looked on here even if I had told her not to. (right Bri? :) )

I decided early this year that I wanted to teach myself how to sew, so back in March I took Mom's sewing machine from her and brought it here. Before I could start with the projects, I had to clear out the study attached to our room so I could move a table up there and get my sewing room ready.

Well I FINALLY got around to clearing out the room, I got the table all set up, got Mom's sewing machine ready to go...turn it on and nada. The motor is burned out and I think the sewing machine needs oiling desperately. This sewing machine is an oldy but a goody (my Mom's grandma won it in a sewing competition). So, then my co-worker had mentioned that she had a sewing machine and a serger both of which were not being used. Well she went to pull them for me and low and behold - can't find the serger but found the sewing machine, sans plug or peddle. At this point I was getting a little frantic, as I had one month before Bri's parents headed to South Africa with my sewing projects. Well finally I am borrowing Erika's for now and will be purchasing my own shortly. (I didn't want to buy one until I knew if sewing was something I enjoyed or was even CAPABLE to doing)

Well it turns out that I LOVE SEWING!! It is so much fun to create my own things and I find myself creating an ever growing list of "I can try and make that" items. I will try and post my projects up here as I go along.

Here was my very first creation:

Nursing Cover for Bri

Bri said she loves it and has had a couple of friends in S.A. request one as well. I just love this fabric and thought it suited Bri very well.

PS - I also need to work on figuring out the best way to display my projects, because none of these pictures are that good.

Project #2: Wipes Case (no sewing required other than the "Yo-Yo")

I also made a Diaper Pouch which is perfect to hold a diaper, wipes and a change of clothes. My friend Lori said that she keeps a diaper pouch in the pocket in her car just in case they are at someone's house and Lyla has a blow out. :)

I am currently working on some fall placemats and some other mystery projects (I have a couple friends with birthdays coming up, so I can not give details on those projects yet)

If any of you sew and know of GREAT tutorial blogs with ideas on patterns and sewing projects, please share because I am trying to build my 'go-t0' sites.

I am really excited about this new hobby....Have a great one!!

Wrap up 2010

2010-09-02T13:27:00.001-07:00

I have been told that my blogging has been lacking and I guess I would have to agree considering that my last post was about the 4th of July.

I have been a slacker at taking pictures lately and have also gotten out of the routine of blogging....but our summer has been pretty normal - lots of pool time, time at Mom & Dad's, cleaning out stuff and spending time with the hubs and family. My reading this summer has really lacked, but I have picked up two new hobbies so far....golf and sewing. Both are still very ammature at best - but I am enjoying them both.

Alex and I have been trying to go out to the driving range every weekend and I am REALLY enjoying having a hobby that Alex and I can do together. Not sure how long it will be before I am ready to play an actual round. So far I have used my 5, 6, and 7 iron, driver and 3 wood. :) Look out LPGA -- your newest member 2025 is on her way.

I decided I wanted to start sewing in May, so I stole Moms. Got it set up and her motor is out...then I went to borrow my co-workers and she didnt have the plug or the pedal, so now I am borrowing Erika's but I am going to have to buy my own because I am LOVING sewing!!! Everything I see makes me think of my next project!!! I have already completed my first two projects but can't post them until they reach their destination in South Africa (I know Bri is paying attention now :) )

I have been running a lot lately -- have I ever mentioned how much I love to run???? Well I do - it is my therapy. If I ever have a terrible day -- I just want to run it off. While I was running on Sunday, I decided to create a challenge called WRAP UP 2010. Everyone needs to set a goal to complete by December 31, 2010 -- this can be a physical goal, spiritual goal, personal goal, professional goal etc...

I set two goals which Erin has called '8 and 8' - she is joining me in the challenge. I want to lose 8 pounds by 2011 and run the Memorial Park Loop in 24 minutes -- its about 3 miles, so I need to average an 8 minute mile. Now, I am NOT fast and I am not even sure I can run that fast -- but I am going to try. I ran on Sunday with a time of 30:31. This is abnormally slow for me, but that is what happens when you run outside -- all the elements have to work in order to have a great run. (Be well hydrated, low humidity and/or heat, drive to push the WHOLE time and no rain :) ) I ran again on Tuesday morning but forgot my watch - but it felt slow...the air also felt like I was breathing through jell-o. I ran again Tuesday evening (I needed the therapy) and my time as 27:01, so that is much better for me. My best time to date was on my 27th birthday and I ran in 26:27. I am going run tonight, so we will see how it goes. See if I can keep it under 27 minutes.

I will try and post more consistently. Praying that you all have a wonderful holiday weekend!!

Knee High by the 4th of July!!

2010-07-13T19:54:00.000-07:00

I remember when my Grandpa Farm would come visit us in Texas in the summers, he would always comment on the corn stalks growing around the prison farm. He would comment on how tall the corn was....and he would always say, "In MN, corn should be knee high by the 4th of July." We had the wonderful opportunity to go back to MN for the 4th and see almost ALL of our extended family. It was one of the best 4th's I have had in a long time. I am hoping we can go up to MN MUCH more often in the summers. It is BEAUTIFUL there this time of year. We literally spent probably 85% of our time outside.

We were only there for 4 full days, so we had to make the most of our time. The pics below show our weekend in complete backwards order because I didn't upload them backwards. Oh well -- here was our trip in reverse. :)

We spent the second half of our trip at my Grandma and Grandpa Olson's. This photo is actually on our last day when we were heading back to the city.

I feel so blessed by the extended family I have. We are all so different, but I still enjoy spending time with them. I wish we lived closer so I could just pop in and visit my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

The Leivas, The Grand Olsons and The Young Olsons

PS - My Grandpa is a total firecracker!! I know she looks tiny here, but she is the toughest member of our family. :) Example: she forced my brother to try Akvidt (a licorish tasting liquor that is probably 30 years old) at 8:30 AM on the 4th of July because it is what scandinavians do. And you know she is the boss because Scott did it and Grandma did it along with him!! It was hilarious!!

My mom had been talking about wanting to go in the lake every day while we were up at the lake....finally on Sunday she won. It was SO MUCH FUN!! The water was a little chilly, but seeing as it was 4th of July eve, the lake was filled with boats waiting for the fireworks to start.

Amanda and I swimming in the lake

Amanda and I were using each other for balance on the rocks, but I am pretty sure that Amanda was trying to pull me in!! Mom and Scott are in the back ground. Amanda and I moved a lot slower than they did, and Mom made sure we heard about it. We were called chickens a lot that day. :)

Earlier in the day on Sunday, Grandpa and Dad took us out fishing for Sunfish. We had a pretty successful fishing trip. We caught 38 keepers, 10 of which weren't really keepers but Alex and Grandpa kept throwing baby sunfish in there to up their totals. We used leeches for bait, so Amanda and I hired a "Fish Butler" (i.e. Daddio) to put the leeches on our hooks, remove the fish from the hooks and sometimes to remove the hooks from the fish. We kept him pretty busy!

I almost caught a bass too. It wrapped itself around the ancor though, and Grandpa couldnt get it in the boat in time. Bummer - would have been picture worthy. I was telling Grandpa's neighbor about the 'almost bass' and he said almost doesnt count. :( But it counts in my head!!

Grandpa and the gang on the boat

Alex was serious about catching the Sunnies, so here he was assuming the position.

Scott and Amanda on the boat

BAIT -- eeewww leeches.

(btw - I will bait my own hooks when the bait is minnows or worms, but not bloodsuckers!)

On Saturday we had a HUGE Olson family gathering for the 4th of July. I was able to see my entire extended family with the exception of 3 cousins. Two were working and the third lives in Ireland and was in LABOR!! Welcome to the world Gemma Louise Evers!!

The Whole Gang! Ready for this.....Front Row: Otis's butt (bulldog), Brandon, Benjamin, Mandy, Amanda, Taylor, Mackenzie, Skidder, Mom Second Row: Me, Janet, Jasmine, Dan, Sheryl, Grandpa, Scott, Amy & Brooklyn, Aunt Chris, Rodger, Mackayla, Grandma Back Row: Dad, Bob, Alex, Scott Jake (phew!)

We had a lot of fun times with babies over the weekend. This was my first weekend to meet a bunch of the newer arrivals. I hadn't seen my cousin Amy's kids in 7 years!!!

Alex chillin with Benjamin -- this was the BEST baby!!

Mom and Brooklyn -- this baby's eyes are GORGEOUS!!
Amanda and Benjamin -- Amanda is officially known as the Baby Whisperer

Friday we were in the Twin Cities spending time with my Mom's side of the family -- the Farms. We had a huge family picnic at a park called French Park. We used to go to this park all the time when we were little. It has a whole playground made out of nets!! We used to fish with our Grandpa Farm too!! I remember one time, we were fishing with those little kid Mickey Mouse poles. We were fishing for sun fish or something else small and I caught a Northern!! Actually I never caught it -- it took off with my fishing pole. So if you ever see a Northern swimming with a mickey mouse rod attached to its mouth -- IT IS MINE!! :)

The whole Farm Gang - here we go again: Back Row: Grandma and Wally, Alex and I, Dad, Jacquie, Uncle Tom and little Alice, Charles, Robyn, Amanda, Scott and Ben. Front Row: Unlce Karl, Aunt Kathy, Alicia, Fable and Mom.

Funny story about our family picnic. We were wrapping everything up for the night and Wally (my Grandma's friend) realized his battery had died, so he couldnt unlock his van. It became a family affair to get into his van. He had left his window open, so finally after 45 minutes of attempts, Unlce Tom used a golf club to pull the manual unlock (I was watching him from the drivers side telling him which direction to go and my cousin Charles was watching from the side to help with directions too). The picture below is blurry, but is in celebration that we made it into the van - hence the thumbs up, every door opened and every light on in the car!!

We are IN!!! YAY!!!
Grandma and Wally
Mother in law and Daughter in law

My cousin Charles and his wife Robyn have two daughters, Fable and little Alice below. Alice just learned to walk, so I was following behind her to make sure she didnt eat it, and she walked up to this tree and just hugged it. The lighting was really good at this point in the day. How precious is this pic?

What a little ham!! Sweet Alice

Grandma and Fable

Scott and Amanda

Alex and I gatherine some last minute supplies

We had to make a lunch stop at Old Country Buffet while in MN. Grandma and Grandpa used to go here every day before he died. It is really a great buffet!!!

Alex and I self-portrait (Erika - is my self portrait face getting better?!?!?)

Me and Grams!! I love her SO MUCH!!!!

If you made it to the end. Thanks for sticking with me. We had such a wonderful time. God has blessed me with an amazing extended family - times two now considering the extended family I gained on Alex's side. Thank you God for your many blessings!!

Side note -- keep praying for Houston Project. Tonight is our last night -- pray that God's love is shown in abundance!!

A Tri of a post -- Triathlon; Girls Weekend and a Wedding!!

2010-06-28T06:31:00.000-07:00

Sunday I competed (well - not so much competed, but participated) in my first Triathlon. It was SO MUCH FUN and a huge challenge. I am not sure if another one is in my near future, but I really enjoyed the experience. I would like to thank my sponsors for the event - The Ashworths and The Waters. Without Lindsey's bike, pump and tri top, I would have been SOL. I couldn't have competed very well without Erika's tri shorts either. :) So thanks ladies for being so generous.

Here are the best things I got out of the triathlon and/or training experience:
1. I was so blessed to have a huge support group pushing and encouraging me both in person and via text messages and facebook. This tri reminded me of how blessed I am with amazing friends and family.

2. I feel in love with Spin Class. I dont know that i will ever fall in love with cycling -- but I do love spin!! What a great workout!!!

3. God always uses these sort of challenges to teach me about His character; my need for Him to get me through etc.

Alex is always my #1 Fan and coach at the same time. He makes me feel like I can do anything, but pushes me to do it at my best and not settle either. Thanks so much boo!!

My Cheering Squad -- (minus Erika). I heard them cheering the whole way through!! Thanks so much for getting up bright and early for me guys!!!

I also received flowers from Erin and Samantha at work on Friday to wish me luck and had countless texts and facebook messages. Thanks so much for taking the time to encourage me. It really meant a lot.

Family photo -- so blessed with the best brother and sister-in-law. Thanks for always supporting me!! (on both sides of the family :) )

It was a little humid at the beginning of the race....hence the fogged up camera. Me in jail waiting for my turn to start.

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A couple weekends ago, we had a girls weekend. I took TWO pics....Linds and Stacey didn't make it in either of them....

We had a great weekend though...so nice to get away and lay by the pool. We all got lots of son and enjoyed the quality time. :)

Me and Teeks

Again at the pool

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A couple weekends ago, our friends Don and Karen got married. We have been excited about celebrating with them for quite some time, so it was SO fun to finally get to!!!! Plus they got married at The Hobby Center and had Fried Ice Cream play at their wedding like ours...so in addition to celebrating a great marriage, Alex and I got to spend the night also remembering and re-celebrating our marriage three years later. :)

It was SO MUCH FUN and just a great day. I was very honored, because Karen asked me to read scripture in her wedding, so all and all it was a great day!!! Their wedding was gorgeous and a great party. There were quite a few people there from Fellows and PPA (business groups I was in college) so it was fun to see some old faces and catch up a little bit.

Congrats again Don & Karen!! Hope you are enjoying Italia!!

Bride and Groom leaving for the night!!!

(not the best pic, but the only one I got of Don too. )

He was REALLY excited that I was taking yet another self portrait. :)

This is what you get Alex, you mess up the pic, it goes on the blog for the world to see.

He was in a goofy mood that night, cause I have like 4 of these. :)

Me and the beautiful Bride!!!

LOVE HER!

Hubbins and I -- both a little sunkissed to say the least.

Alex played 36 that day and I was at the pool most of the morning with Katherine and Abigail.

Oh and this church is a little formal, so the two scripture readers and vocalist had to wear robes. :) Always entertaining.

It was SUPER fun to see Jennifer Simar -- we were good friends in High School. It was also nice to get to know Katie Warren a little better. She has the MOST beautiful voice. Check her out at www.KatieWarrenMusic.com

My picture taking has definately been lacking -- I am working on improving that!! Until next time.

Spencer Update

2010-06-17T05:53:00.000-07:00

Spencer had surgery on Friday to remove his toe. I dropped him off Friday morning and then guilt-ly headed off to Girl's Weekend leaving Alex to nurse Spencer back to health over the weekend.

Alex picked Spencer up Friday evening. He said the first 12 hours were really hard because you could tell that Spence was in pain.

Here are some pics of Spencer post-op...

Although it looks like it, Spencer didn't have a cast, just bandages.... With the bandages on, Spencer wouldn't put any weight on that foot. We thought he was in pain, but I think that it was really just that his foot was so taped up that he would have been forced to put weight up on his toenails.

Monday Alex took Spence back to the vet to have the bandages removed and check on the incision. The vet was VERY pleased with how the surgery went and thinks that Spencer will be back to normal in no time.

With the bandages off, Spencer walks on all fours again. He is very cautious with that back foot, but is putting weight on it so that is good.

The vet is going to remove the stitches next Friday, so the hardest part now is keeping Spencer from messing with his stitches. He gets to wear this when we are not around to spy on him. :)

We had to get a soft cone because the old vet gave this HUGE plastic cone and the poor dog couldn't even lift up his head.

Anyways, overall we are doing great...just ready to get these stitches out.

We have a busy weekend ahead....lots of fun stuff though. Our friends Karen and Don are getting married. Their reception is at the Hobby Center and they are having Fried Ice Cream perform. (in case you haven't heard...I am obsessed with FIC - they played at our wedding too. Our reception was at the Hobby Center too, so we are looking forward to celebrating with Don & Karen and also reminiscing about our wedding day. Congrats Don & Karen!!! In between wedding stuff, Katherine and Abigail are coming in town to visit. I miss Katherine so much, so our weekend should be fab.u.lous.

Sunday has no plans, but I have a feeling Alex and I will probably begin our golf lessons. We finally bit the bullet and bought me some clubs, so I FINALLY get to learn how to play!!!! YAY!!

Spencer Update

2010-06-08T13:27:00.000-07:00

I went to the vet on Saturday to see what the final game plan is for Spencer-boo. Since the antibiotic for his bacterial infection did not completely remove the tumor and because the tumor is progressively getting worse, the best plan of action is to remove the digit.

I will be dropping Spencer off at the vet first thing Friday morning and heading to Girls Weekend!! Alex is going to pick Spence up Friday night and take care of him all weekend. They will get LOTS of quality time seeing as how the World Cup begins this weekend, so Alex and Spencer will be glued in front of the television. (it wasn't intentional, but could we have PICKED a better weekend for Girls Weekend???)

Anyways, the vet seems to think this surgery should be VERY easy for Spencer to bounce back from, so we will see. The vet said within 10 days he should be back to normal. here is hoping!!

Here are some cute picks of our little bug-a-boo. (You may have already seen ALL of these, but I have limited photos here on this computer)

Wedding Day Photo Op -- Peek a Pup

Mom and Spence - they are BFF

Spencer checking out the new munchkin when Alyssa came over for Christmas
"What are you?? Such a small human!"
You can see Spencer's back left inside toe - pre tumor here

Have a great week!!!

We are still here....

2010-06-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

My blogging has definately slacked in the past months...I think part of it is just that we are not as busy or doing as much, so I just don't make time to blog.

A few weeks ago we have my parents and Grandma and Wally over for lunch to celebrate Mother's Day. It was so much fun to have family around...I love my family and feel so blessed. We are going to Minnesota in July to see all the extended family so that should be a lot of fun. We have been to MN just to visit in a LONG TIME. It is always a little crazy trying to see like 20 people in 4 days though. Counting down just the same.

Scott has a way of making Mom crack up EVERY TIME we are all together. I am not sure what it is....but here is an example. :)

Mom and Grandma

All the ladies!!!

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Last weekend we went to Mom and Dad's for Memorial Day. Can you believe I didn't take a SINGLE picture while we were there. It was wonderful though. We took a couple days off of work and had a nice LONG weekend!!! :)

We got lots of quality time with Mom and Dad's dog Skid.
(photo courtesy of Erika Waters)

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I just finished this book today. It is an 8 part series called The Zion Covenant. It is a fictional story about WW2 and it is WONDERFUL!!! I can't wait to start book 3, but it is going to have to wait because ......

I am going to read this book recommended by Erika. Starting it tonight or tomorrow. Should be good.

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Triathlon training is going ok...starting to get a little nervous. Going to do a runthrough on Saturday and Swim, then bike, then run....I will try and blog about how it goes. :) Not going to be exactly the same as I will have to swim at the gym, then drive over to Terry Hershey and ride and then load the bike back up and then go run. Wish me luck!!!

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What we have been up to lately......

2010-05-23T15:37:00.001-07:00

In case you didn't know....this is our pup Spencer. He is a toy rat terrier and is 7 years old. Alex and I are little bit infatuated with our dog and you might go so far as to call him a little bit spoiled.

The picture above was taken at our third vet visit in a week and a half span. Spencer might look calm here, but he is not. He HATES the vet and shakes histerically until you leave or tell him you are leaving. In January we noticed that Spencers inside back left toe was a little swollen and red, so we went in to Banfield for our 6 month check up, we asked the vet about it and she replied that it was most likely a viral infection and just to keep an eye on and that it should die down.

Well it didn't really get any worse that we noticed....until about a month ago we went to clip his toenails and noticed that his actual nail on that particular toe was about 4 times thicker than the other toenails and the toe was swollen again and red.

I decided we better take him in to the vet to have the toe looked at and hopefully get an antibiotic or something to cure it. Well we went to the vet and the vet took a fungal culture, as well as some xrays. The Xrays showed signs that the bone on that toe was being eaten away, suggesting that this is possibly a tumor and not an infection. The fungal culture came back clean, and the vet wanted to send the xrays off to a radiologist to review.

Side note -- I am NOT a fan of our vet at Banfield - Sheperd location...she is very arrogant and rude and doesn't leave you feeling like she loves your pet as much as you do.

FYI - This is what the toe looks like today....

Poor punkin...So the radiologist came back saying that he believes this is indeed a tumor, either Melanoma or Squamos Cell Carcinoma, both skin cancers. The only way to get rid of the tumor is to remove the digit (i.e. the TOE). The vet at Banfield said she would just amputate the whole foot to be on the safe side. Again...not a fan. If you can determine that the tumor is not affecting the surrounding areas, why would you remove the WHOLE foot, causing the dog to have 3 usable legs versus 4 usable legs shy of one toe!?!?!? That is like saying you have a stomach bug, so you better remove the stomach just to make sure you dont get another one.

Well, I have been planning on switching vets once our year contract is up with Banfield, so I decided this was a good time to switch and get a second opinion on Spence's toe.

We went to Erika and Mikey's vet - Dr. Wiltshire at Lakeside Animal Clinic and i was immediate impressed and MUCH more comfortable than with Dr. Okofor. Dr. Wiltshire agreed with Dr. Okofor in that Spence either had a tumor or an infection, but his approach was much more humane. He said that since amputation and sugery is pretty severe, it was worth testing for a bacterial infection just in case.

So as of right now, Spencer is on an antibiotic and we will be going back to the vet in two weeks to see if his tumor has improved at all. If not, we will be discussing amputation. The one nice thing is that unlike Dr. Okofor at Banfield, Dr. Wiltshire can perform the surgery himself. With Banfield we would have had to be sent to a specialist and go through all of this again.

Anyways...that is the update. A couple of people had asked what was going on. Pray that his toe heals up and that if we have to amputate it is just the toe and not the whole foot.

Happy Birthday George!!!

2010-05-03T18:47:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Night we celebrated George's birthday. It was a great night with all The Leivas! :)

Here are pics from our dinner. Adriana was playing with my camera, hence the beauty shots and all the shots of Alyssa. I know Sonia and Mauri want to see all these pics of Alyssa. She is getting cuter and cuter every day!! :) If you don't want to see a bunch of the same pics - then skip this post. :)

Sonia - there is a video at the bottom as well.

The Leiva Family

Birthday Dinner at Churrascos

Jennifer, Adriana (good Smyzing -- ANTM phrase), Alyssa, George and Hubs

Alyssa chatting with Uncle Alex

Happy Girl

She is so cute!!

She was excited about something -- prob her sis Adriana

Ok, so this is Alyssa mimicking George's mean face....very funny.

Mean face take too....

Adriana smyzing (smiling with her eyes) -- I love this girl!!

Happy girl!!

Jenn modeling for Adriana

ALyssa and Daddy playing

Happy Birthday George!! We love you!

Me and my Alyssa girl

Beautiful Spring!!

2010-05-03T18:31:00.000-07:00

Lately we have been enjoying the beautiful Houston weather. This past weekend it started getting hot and humid, so I guess that means we are done with beautiful spring. Today was gorgeous, but HOT!!

We had a bible study picnic a few weeks ago and as you will be able to tell by the pictures, the newest addition to our W.O.W. family stole the spotlight. This was the first time many of the bible study girls got to meet Davis.

Here is Davis and his mama

The Pinckneys plus Davis

(looks pretty natural if you ask me :) )

Oh this pic snuck in here. Our other neighbor had a little boy three weeks before Davis was born.

Me and Baby Jake (cute huh??)

Back at the picnic -- me and my nephew Davis (I made myself his aunt)

Hanging out with Christy and precious Jackson

Alex and Spence

It was SO much fun. Can;t wait until our next Bible Study event.

Miscellaneous Information :)

2010-04-26T09:13:00.001-07:00

Hi there,

Here is another one of those random posts, but one that I thought would be kind of fun to answer:

1. What is the last meal you cooked at home? - Last night I made Shrimp and Fish tacos (inspired by Sam's husband Jason) with cilantro rice and homemade guac. Very yummy and healthy.

2. What is the next meal you are going to cook at home? - Tonight I will be making Coopers Grilled Chicken with cauliflower.

3. Any trips planned for the remainder of 2010?
-We are going to MN to see my family and going to California in the fall!! Plus numerous trips to Mom and Dad's in there as well.

4. What is your favorite way to get rid of stress? - definately running....it is a complete release from me.
5. Currently reading?? - Prague Counterpoint by B. Thoene ... really good.

6. Next wedding you are attending? - Don and Karen's in June! Can't wait!!

7. Best hand made gift you have ever received? - for graduation from High School, Bri bought an old cedar chest and refurbished it, and deco-pauged (absolutely NO IDEA how to spell that) it with pics from growing up together. It is still in our guest room. Ask to see it next time you are over.

8. What's the plan for tonight? - run; cook dinner and relax

9. What are you wearing today? - white pants and a blue top from Ann Taylor loft -- I am very spring-y today to match the gorgeous weather.

10. Next Baby Shower you will attend? -- hmmm...I don't current;y have any in the calendar. I just went to one for Catherine Haskew though. She is due in a couple weeks!!

11. What has been the highlight of 2010 so far? --really it has been having a RELAXED 2010. We have not been near as busy as in previous years and are home almsot every night and I am loving it!! Getting very selfish with our at home time. :)

12. Who do you want to reply to this post? - Erika, Amanda (you owe us a BLOG), Tiffany, Lindsey, Sam, Bri, Sarah, Katherine, Stacey -- time to start a blog, Erin H., Erin. M and Jenn. (of those, I think that Erika, Sam, Jenn and Erin H. are the only ones that actually might consider it :) )

Have a great day!!!

Colombia....

2010-04-24T07:51:00.000-07:00

Over Easter, we had the great opportunity to go visit my in-laws in Bogota, Colombia. We had the BEST time and will definately have many trips back to Colombia. I was so impressed with the city. Bogota has the climate of San Francisco and mountains everywhere. Absolutely stunning views. Here is a picture play by play of our trip. Alex's Stepdad took some additional pics, so I will add them when I get them.

We were greeted at the airport with mariachi music (really it was welcoming home the Women's Soccer team as they had just won a tournament which earned them a spot in the Womens World Cup) and Mauri, my Father in Law had two dozen roses waiting for me. There are fields and fields of roses all over the country in Bogota.

Our first day they drove us around and showed us some of the MANY beautiful views in Bogota. Since it was Good Friday, most places were closed and there were people lined around many of the gorgeous Iglesias in recognition of the day of Christ's crucifixion.

Mauri, myself, Alex and Sonia with ALLLL of Bogota behind us. This city is HUGE!!!

On Sunday, Sonia and Mauri took us to a little town about an hour outside of Bogota called Guatavita. All the homes in this town are white stucco, kind of like Greece but on a smaller scale. This was the only body of water we saw the whole weekend, as Bogota is no where near the coast. It was so beautiful. We also had this amazing pound cake type dessert here and my first time to try Dulce de Leche. (kind of like a brown sugar-y fudge type thing) -- That is what it is called right Sonia??? Alex tried to feed some to a stray dog and the dog passed. There are stray dogs EVERYWHERE and Alex always saved his leftovers for the dogs, but these dogs are PICKY! They would pick through the plate and only eat the meat. haha

Alex and Mauri in front of Lake Guativita

Alex and I and his Mom

Guatavita has an old story that a prominent woman lost her lover and therefore walked into the lake and died. Sonia was saying that no one has been able to measure the depth of the lake...that they have even brought in people from other countries and no one can accurately measure the depth. Haunted???

Sunday we also went to Xipicira (sp???) and went to a Salt Mine and did the tour. They had turned the finished area of the Mine into the 13 stations of Christ. They cut these crosses out of the Salt Mine...so BEAUTIFUL!!

Mauri, Sonia and Alex waiting for the tour.

While we were in Bogota, we also got to meet the newest member of the Castiblanco Family -- Barbas the Miniture Schnauzer. He was so CUTE and would hop around like a bunny every where he went.

Alex and Barbas -- Barbas was not staying still by choice I don't think.

There are Centro Comerciales (malls) EVERYWHERE. We went to the food court one night for dinner.

Mauri and I at dinner. My kids are going to call Mauri 'Grandpa Trouble' cause he is always causing trouble. I am working on teaching Alyssa to call him that. :)

On Saturday, we went to the Body World Exhibit in Colombia. It was SO neat!!!

There are gorgeous churches EVERYWHERE in Bogota. All very old and all with such intricate detail work. This is the oldest Cathedral in Bogota I believe.

You can't really see it, but there is a mountain behind us. :)

We went to a Panaderia every morning for breakfast. They have AMAZING pastries. My favorite was this puff pastry with sugar on top, and filled with Guayaba. Guayaba tastes a lot like rhubarb to me. Rhubarb always makes me think of Grandpa Olson, he makes great rhubarb pies.

Alex and I overlooking Bogota.

Alex and I hanging out at the apartment.

Barbas and Micho

We did so much more than what is in this pictures. I will take better pics to document our trip next time!!

Aaahhhh.....predicitability

2010-04-15T05:52:00.000-07:00

Do you ever wake up some mornings looking forward to work because to halfway know what to expect?? I did this morning....just grateful that I somewhat knew what my WORK day would look like, because if this evening follows the way the earlier part of this has gone...there is NO telling what will happen when I get home tonight.

Here is the play-by-play of my Wednesday Night:
4:45 - get home from work, ready with my FULL list of Wednesday night to dos including walk and feed Spence, make dinner, work on wrapping up Ashworth taxes, laundry and maybe even fit a run in there before heading over to Lindseys to discuss their return at 8:30. (I know - optomistic right)
5:00 - finish walking Spence - head down to the office to get to work and hear cat fighting in our back yard (we have a handful of stray cats because of all the empty fields around us)
5:02 - look out the window and see a mama cat on the deck and then a baby kitten (who in my head am now calling Precious) that had somehow gotten its head stuck between our deck and our fence.
5:04 - not knowing what to do, I walk over Sams for moral support to figure out what the heck we should do

*Side Note - I am a HUGE animal lover - emphasis on huge...I almost cried once because I thought I hit an armadillo and Bri and I growing up would lie to each other that the road kill we saw was only a rug. So I am semi freaking out at the thought of this kitten dying in our back yard.

5:05 - Sam and I assess the situation and determine we need to examine from the other side of the fence, so we go knocking on our backyard neighbor's door whom we have never met only to find that they are not home, but the homeowner's cousin's boyfriend who is staying there for the week is home (Joe was a LIFESAVER by the way).
5:10 - we start digging to see if that will give Precious wiggle room - all the while watching mama cat stare at us with death eyes from on top of the fence. The digging doesnt really help because the head is really stuck.

For the next 45 minutes we try every from prying the back side of teh fence, using a hammer to force a little more wiggle room, pushing with all our might and nothing works. At this point it has become a Happy Feet Street affair and we now have me, Sam, Joe, our neighbor Ivan, neighbor Jodi and eventually neighbors Kenley and Melissa all working on saving Precious.

Finally we decide we need to remove the last board of our wood deck without putting too much pressure on Precious's neck. Also, while doing this work, we realize there are 3 more kittens under our deck.

6:00 - Ivan and Joe are able to help Precious and we determine we should take them to the SPCA so that they don't die or get stuck again. We also chased down the other 3 kittens too. They kept running from our backyard to Ivan's backyard to Kenley and Melissa's backyard. But Joe was able to catch them all.

6:30 - Sam and I take them to the SPCA. I couldn't help but ensuring that the SPCA was not going to kill these kittens - they replied that there was a 50/50 chance because they are too small to adopt, and there are on short supply of foster families. Sam thinks they were just saying that so that they don't have to deal with the kittens and were trying to guilt me into taking them and even if she is right, I couldn't handle going through all this effort to save Precious and the others only for them to get put down. Just could not stomach it...

6:50 - Sam and I leave WITH THE KITTENS and I go home and try to figure out what to do with 4 kittens for 3 weeks.

Turns out my neighbor Linda has been feeding the mama and since the kittens are too small to eat food, we decided to put them in a crate in Linda's backyard so that the mama can still feed them, and we are trying to find a vet that might take them for 3 weeks until they are old enough to get adopted...so if you know of any vets that would do this...please comment!!!

Anyways...as you can imagine, none of my to do list got done other then meeting with Lindsey and Adam....but all is well. God has been reminding and teaching me a lot about how he restores us and how He renews each day with new mercies and grace and I am appreciating that in a new way today. If you made it through my play by play thanks!!! Many of you may think this is silly to get so worked up over kittens, but I know Bri will understand. :)

Here are some pics of the babies. Precious is one of the two under the black cat. If you want kittens, let me know. :)

One Piece Frustration

2010-04-13T11:20:00.000-07:00

I am a self-proclaimed swimsuit HATER!! Always have been, and always will be. When I was little I would always say that if I was ever president, the first thing I would do is make swimsuits ILLEGAL. (I know, I know...priorities right, hopefully I would do some good as president too)

I am not someone who is built for swimsuits. I like to think i was built for business casual, but even that isnt really that true. I can pull off running shorts and a big ole tshirt like nobody's business though. haha

Anyways, two pieces aren't the best on me, but I feel like one pieces are even worse. As a matter of fact, I feel that there are very few people who feel like they look amazing in a one piece (and I am not talking about a tankini ladies...but a SOLID one piece). I mean, who doesn't love that the leg holes are so tight that it cuts off the circulation in your thighs...and if you get a suit big enough that it doesn't do this then you have saggy butt suit. (if you are reading this and you have never had the thigh circulation issue, then you probably have skinny legs and are not invited to be in my club) Plus we all gotta love how one pieces make a flat girl look like a boy. Haha...I am re-reading this and I sound really disgruntled when in reality I am just laughing at this. Please tell me SOMEONE is with me.

Well, the whole point of this post is that I bought a Nike onepiece today because I am going to start training for a triathlon that is in the end of June and it has been YEARS since i have bought one -- back in the lifeguarding days. We will see how this one works out when I start training. Did I mention it has been years since I intentionally swam laps more than once in a month?? Should be interesting....I am really excited about this tri and the new challenge. I will keep you posted on the progress. Feel free to throw your tri tips my way for you triathlon experts.

Have a great one!!

Spring Cleaning

2010-04-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

I love Spring!!! I love all the flowers blooming and that it is warming up enough to run outside and actually SWEAT. I love the feeling that everything is starting over in a sense....and I really love Spring Cleaning.

We just back from Bogota, Colombia yesterday (I will post about that as soon as I upload pics) and we had a few hours last night to do laundry and get ourselves out of vacation mode and back into work mode. I started cleaning out our dresser and re-organizing the drawers that were all messed up. Up until now, we had been focused on our trip to visit the in-laws, but now that its over, my mind is free to start thinking about other things....which I think will be cleaning out stuff!!! :)

So, I have compiled a list of things I want to get done this spring/summer and am going to put them in a jar (Steph Cease style :) ). I am going to try and accomplish one item every two weeks. At first I was considering one a week, but with working full time and knowing that we don't have out entire weekends free EVER, I don't know that I can accomplish that...so we are aiming for one item every two weeks or two items a month.

Here is my list so far: (I am sure it will continue to grow)
1. Clean out our study in our Master Bedroom -- right now it is just storage.
2. Re-organize our office closet
3. Clean up the back yard area
4. Re-organize the pantry and our tupper ware cabinet
5. Finish decorating our living room and dining room.
6. Get a plumber to come out and fix our kitchen sink
7. Get rid of extra tvs/furniture etc -- sell on Craig's list maybe
8. Train for a Triatholon
9. Clean out guest room closet
10. Go through clothes to donate
11. Clean out bathroom cabinets

That is all I have off the top of my head, but I am SURE there is more. I love it though. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. It seems like a lot of people were very productive this past weekend.

3 Years ago today....

2010-03-10T11:02:00.000-08:00

3 years ago today was the best day of my life. I remember that weather wise it was a beautiful day in Texas and 3 years ago today, I got to marry my best friend. I was head over heels for Alex then, but looking back now, I had NO idea how much I could love this man and i am sure it will only continue to grow.

I am so grateful that God put us together and that we get to go through life together. Alex makes every day better and I could NOT imagine any part of my day without him.

I love you Alex. Happy Anniversary!!

Happenings in Houston

2010-03-07T17:24:00.000-08:00

Stace and I had our Second Annual Birthday Celebration Extravaganza this past weekend. We had a lot of fun. Always fun to celebrate with one of your closest friends. :)

Happy Birthday Again Stace Face!

Birthday Girls

Ok, so the next set of pics take some explaining...Erika was trying to get a shot of Mikey and Alex and then they decided they were going to do Blue Steel and this is the progression of the photos Erika took...

Attempt #1

haha...Attempt #2
Attempt #3
Attempt #4

Ok, so Mikey got kind close a couple times. Alex...you failed. :)

Me and my creepy little brother.

Some of the Ladies at the par-tay
Yay! Handsome Hubby

Last weekend we went to Horseshoe Bay to see Mom and Dad. Grandma and Grandpa were in town too, so we got to see them and we celebrated Mom and Dad's Birthdays.

Spence was out by the grill with Dad, apparently he just got something Lipsmacking..

Dad and I enjoying the sunset

Skidders

beautiful...

And then a couple weekends ago we hung out with the fam and got ice cream...Alyssa was saying "ooo" about something...probably the yummy Marble Slab. She is SO cute!!!

Have a great week!!

Scripture Memory

2010-02-15T08:27:00.001-08:00

As I mentioned above, I am working on memorizing a scripture passage a week. Someone posted on my blog that there is a website that is a great aide for scripture memory and BOY was he right. It is call Scripture Typer and can be found here.

If you create an account on here, you can add passages you are working on memorizing and it has you type out the verses. It tracks your speed at each attempt and tracks once you have mastered a verse. This has been an amazing way to memorize because it forces you to get all the and/then/therefore/by etc correct because it won't let you move on until you do it correctly.

Anyways...check it out. I love it.

Thanks for the tip Brett.

Oh and I added the link on my blog as well. They have a 52 week challenge, just like what I am doing!!