It's Fall Y'all!

Well, I guess it's not officially fall, but it's officially September so it counts.

Let me just get one thing out: my cousin Luke is doing really well! Praise God! He was extubated and came out of surgery crying (good thing). He's breathing on his own and it looks like they might be going home Sunday or Monday! You can read about it here.

So, since it's fall and I'm ready to bust out our cute sweaters (yeah right! I do live in south Texas now), I thought I would share some fall inspiration from my pinterest board. You're welcome!

1. I want a front porch like this. 2. I want to arrange some pumpkins and big flowers just like this.

Gold pumpkins? L O V E  

Adore these white pumpkins!

Initial pumpkins. So cute.

1. I want to have a trio of hanging, framed mirrors. 2. I want to hang cute wreaths on said mirrors.

Thanksgiving centerpiece. Yes please.

Dryer vent to pumpkin. Genius.

Easy and cute centerpiece.

You can find all the sources and more pictures/inspiration on my pinterest board Fall.

{Don't know about pinterest? 1. Where have you been? 2. You must go there, now. 3. Create an account. 4. Plan on spending the rest of your day there. Again, you are welcome.}

InstaFriday

Tucker's 1st day of school drawing. Yes, that's Hannah. :)

Welcome school! Not welcome alarm clock every morning.

Lego time before bed. Oye.

That's it! It's been a busy week of waking up early, lunch making, school shuttling, physical therapy going, and household keeping. 

Happy Friday!

Oh, can y'all keep my cousins and their son, Luke in your prayers? Luke is going to be extubated today and earlier this week they also lost him doing this exact same procedure. You can read more about it here. Thanks!

Hello Monday!

Hello first day of school!

I can hardly believe that it has been a year since I wrote this post.

This time around, things feel so different.

For one, Tucker woke up at 5:30, got dressed and came into my room exclaiming,

"I'm ready for school!"

I'm not sure I have ever seen such joy!

That made this mamma's heart ease a bit.

Drop off was so much different.

Tucker practically ran down the hall and found his sweet Hannah.

Then he sat down and said, "BYE! See you after school!"

No tears.

No grabbing on.

No scared eyes.

Just a big boy ready to face the world.

My baby boy.

{oh boy, the tears might be coming now}

My precocious, giant, fun-loving, baby boy has officially started his journey.

And I couldn't be happier for him.

Although my house is very, very quiet right now.

Hello 1st Grader!

Hello Kindergartner!

Hello school boys!

Hello sweet friends!

Hello big, independent boy!

Hello saying hello to teacher!

Happy Birthday George!

Yup, that's all three of us looking mighty fly.

Oy.

Happy Birthday Jordana!

We love you!

Stock

Recently my mother made the trek to Tulia, TX along with her sisters (there are 6 girls total) to clean out my grandparent's house. My grandparents made the difficult and emotional decision to move closer to family and into an assisted living apartment. Obviously there were lots of tears shed and years and years of items were shifted thru.

My mom came home with several momentos or treasures as she calls them, but the greatest treasure to me is pictures.

Today, I dusted off my photoshoping skills and spent some time cleaning up some of those pictures she brought home. I can't tell you the years these photos were taken, but suffice it to say they are before 1950. :)

{My mom's mother, Beatrice died when my mom was 12 but it's so neat to see pictures of her. I can see a lot of my mom and a little of me in her.}

Beatrice

T.A., my grandfather

Beatrice and T.A.

L-R: Front: Barbara, Tina, Bonnie. Back: Beatrice, Teresa, T.A.

Hello Monday!

Hello nice, comfy, big bed.
Hello lots and lots of laundry from our weekend away.
Hello celebrating with my BIL on his graduation from the Fire Academy at the top of his class and with the Esprit de Corps Award. We are so proud of him!

Hello rain! Thank you for gracing us this weekend!
Hello to this birthday boy. Isn't he a doll?

Hello to getting to spend time with my sisters this weekend and having a fun birthday party to boot!

(my youngest sister, middle sister, and me)

Hello to having to be without my other half since he has training in Zapata and won't be home till Thursday night. :( I think I shall watch a few sappy movies and stay in my pjs most of the time. :)
Hello only SIX MORE DAYS till school starts!

ANW 2028

OK, I admit that this show may not be for everyone. But our family loves American Ninja Warrior. I mean, we really love it. We save the episodes on the DVR so that we can watch them together. The boys build the phases out of Legos and practice for Mt. Madoriama. Ir really is fun!

do you see the "ninja" waiting on top?

So it was no surprise to us that while we were watching the finals last night that Tucker got up to run the course too. As he got more involved, I had to pull out my phone and capture it.

Love that kid!

...and Wednesday

It's Wednesday. Really? Can this week go A-N-Y S-L-O-W-E-R?

So here's what I know:

• It's Wednesday. Duh.
• 12 days till the first day of school. Also know as FREEDOM. For me that is.
• I have two bulging discs. At C5 and C6. Those little lovelies are putting pressure on that there little nerve and that nerve pretty much controls everything in my left arm. It's a no win sit-e-ashun.
• My doctor referred me to a specialist for the aforementioned dilemma.
• The specialist needs my medical record and the referral from my doctor to schedule an appointment.
• Since I have a PPO insurance plan, I don't technically need a referral to see a doctor therefore my doctor won't officially send a referral to said specialist.
• The specialist WILL NOT schedule an appointment without a blasted referral.
• Get my INSANE drift?
• My arm really hurts.
• The nurse that called me yesterday advised me to wear a sling to keep from using my arm thus helping with the pain.
• My current doctor won't see me regarding my bulging discs and all that they encompass because she has now referred me to a specialist.
• The specialist won't schedule an appointment without a referral.
• My insurance plan does not call for referrals.
• Lord have mercy, I am going to loose my already lost mind.
• 12 more days till school starts...
• Oh, and I thought this was really funny.

InstaFriday

Doing more summer homework. {sigh}

Go Gators! This was our end of season party. And this was the "goofy" picture.

Turbo always watches over the playing. Or just lays on top of whatever the boys are playing with.

Stuart's deer mount. 

It's here.

It's huge.

It's beautiful.

She Reads Truth. Good, good stuff.

Tucker loving on Spencer.

My parents have to put him down today. It's been a very hard and emotional decision. They just found out that he has diabetes really bad and the poor dog is in a lot of pain. This is the best decision but it's still sad. :(

It's not just cats y'all

All animals have to get the light!

Hurry Up and Wait

We went fishing this last weekend.

Let me start out by saying that I have only been fishing once in my entire life and that was the summer after I graduated high school. We were on a mission trip and took some time out to fish in a pond. I caught a fish on my first try and it was most definitely smaller than the bait we used this weekend.

BUT my husband likes to fish and he wanted to take the boys out.

So we went fishing.

The theme of fishing: HURRY UP AND WAIT.

I am not sure that I am cut out for fishing. 

It was great fun from 6 -7 am (oh yes, fishing is an early venture. To the tune of waking up at 5 am. Grand fun that was!) while the fish were biting, but the hours after that were, well, boring.

I was almost as fidgety as the boys.

Almost.

But they had a good time and we did catch some fish.

I just don't think I'll be going back anytime soon. {smirk}

Too bad none of the fish were big enough to keep. Fresh fish is yummy!

Apparently I need to dress up more

Tyson: Where are we going?
Me: Nowhere. Why?
Tyson: Because you're wearing a fancy dress.
Me: This isn't fancy. It's just a casual, summer dress.
Tyson: Huh. But it's still a dress.
Me: Right. But not all dresses are fancy.
Tyson: I don't know. Usually you only wear a dress when you want to be fancy.
Me: Right now I just want to be cool.
Tyson: I don't think you're very cool mom.
{wow! He's sux and I gave already entered into the "uncool mom" stage}