Fair Week

The day the fair left town last year was the day that Austin started asking when it would be coming back. Well, last week was 'the' week. My feelings on the fair are a little mixed. On the downside, I don't like riding fair rides, I always feel dirty when I leave because it's full of unsanitary practices, and it tends to bring a whole host of super strange people and really bad fashion statements out of hiding. On the positive side, my boys absolutely love it and it makes me happy to see them so excited. And I do love me some fair lemonade and corn dogs, and it's the only time of year I have that.

My two sweet boys.

Brandon, Aaron, and Austin

This was Austin in line to ride the big swinging ship by himself. Two minutes later I chickened out for him and didn't let him ride it alone. He did ride it with Luke later, though.

Aaron and Craig at the demolition derby

Aaron with his friends, Cole, Ethan, Dawson, and Brandon

Last year, my parents decided they would get all of their grand kids a fun pass that gets them into the fair all week and they can ride all of the rides without having to buy tickets. They did that again this year for the kids so they could all go as often as they could all week. There is also a tradition with my parents taking all the grand kids to the fair on the same night so they can all ride the rides together. Except this year, Kaleb and Kaulyn couldn't be there that night, Jennifer is away at college, and Aaron found a friend pretty soon after we got there and stayed with him most of the night. It worked out pretty well though, because Luke and Brandon enjoy riding the same rides, and Austin is perfectly content riding everything by himself.

Aaron and Austin on the tilt-a-whirl.

My mom, dad, and Luke with his famous 'don't see me' pose.

Aaron is in the orange shirt, taking it all in. Austin is behind him with his hands in the air.

The picture above captures my boys exactly as they are. Aaron is cautious, thoughtful, and likes to be in control. Austin is my little thrill-seeker.  One night when we were there Austin wanted to ride on the Ferris Wheel but Aaron didn't, so I told Austin I would go buy some tickets for me so I could ride it with him. That child was bound and determined to ride it by himself, and he was exactly tall enough to ride without an adult, so he jumped on there by himself and had the whole car to himself. It scared me to death. He loved it. That is just how the boy is. Aaron likes the rides, but one of the main reasons he likes to go is that it is time outside of school that he can hang out with friends. He spent a couple of days there with his friend Brent, and a few with his friend Lane.

Aaron and Lane waiting in line.

Aaron and Lane on the bumper cars.

Rob and Aaron...looking good.

Luke and Austin in one car. Aaron and Brandon in the other...getting ready for some crashes.

Luke and Austin on the tilt-a-whirl

So that was our fair week. Aaron went a total of 5 times, and Austin went 4 times. The boys are sad to see it go, Robbie and I are happy to see it go. Austin asked yesterday when it would be coming back to town and I told him it would be this time next year. He said very sadly "momma, that's a whole bunch of days". I said (not so sadly and with a sense of relief) "yes, yes it is".

Me and my lil man

Well that was embarrassing

Last week I was listening to a speaker who wanted us to think of our most embarrassing moments. I sat there trying to think of what mine would be. I thought about the time(s) I stepped out of my house straight out of bed, scantily clad, to let my dog out, not realizing there were 15 house workers standing there looking at me. I also thought about the oil changer guy calling me Delicious in front of everyone in the waiting room because he was having trouble reading my name. But after what I did this morning, I could easily top those two.

I was outside this morning having a discussion with my brick layer about post caps (I know, exciting right?). I was walking around these boxes full of stone and not even paying attention to where I was stepping. Well, I stepped on a nail that was sticking out of a board wearing my Yellowbox flip-flops. My flip-flop stuck to the board. My foot did not. So when I went to take a step, my flip-flop tripped me, and I fell. And what makes it even more fun is that it rained here last night for the first time in months, so I didn't just fall in the dirt. I fell in mud. While I was laying on the ground, I reached over to grab my flip-flop and it was REALLY stuck to the board. So not only was I sitting in mud right in front of my brick-layer and his helper, I was also struggling with that stupid board that refused to let go of my flip-flop.

Yes, it was awesome.

I do not know how they managed to keep a straight face, because I'm not sure I would have been able to control myself under those circumstances, but bless them for holding it together until I got my muddy self with my holey flip-flop back in my house.

Seriously, they deserve some type of an award for that.

And that is all I will say about that.

Now that the weather is cooling off a little, the sno-cone places in town will start closing down soon, so we are trying to use them while they are there. This is what my boys wanted for an after-school snack a few weeks ago.

Nothing says 'growing up in the country' like heading up to the local feed store for an after-school snack.

I haven't been able to post as often lately because we are in soccer season full swing. Both of the boys are playing, so for the past few weeks we've had soccer practice 2 nights a week, with 2 games every Saturday. I am not complaining at all about this. I love watching my boys play. It is just very time-consuming with all that we have going on outside of soccer. I will say that I'm glad that Robbie and I are not coaching this year. We coached Austin's team in the spring, but that was before we started building and had a little more time to put into it.

Ahhh, those were the days. We just thought we were busy then.

And because I like a post with more than one picture, I will end with this. Austin had Western Day at school last Friday, and was SO excited about getting to dress in his boots, belt, and hat.

I just love this picture of Austin with his teacher, Mrs. Nash. Aren't they both just as cute as can be?!

House Progress

When everyone told me that the house goes up really fast in the first month and then slows way down after that, I thought 'well not MY house'. Let's just say I was a little overly optimistic. So if you are one of the ones that told me that, I apologize for the 'I know more than you know' eye roll. Apparently you knew what you were talking about.

Back of House

Ok, enough of admitting I was wrong about something. (Why does that almost HURT to do that anyway?)

Stairs and Kids Rooms/Bathrooms

So here's where we are on our house. The heat/air and electricity is all done, which is a good thing because I'm not sure those walls could hold any more wires. The brick has all been laid on the sides and back of the house. The painter has finished with everything he had to paint on the outside of the house.

And while we had a framer out here, we threw in a little dock project for our pond, too. The bottom part of the dock floats on the water, so it will rise and fall with the water level, which is a good thing right now because as low as our pond is now, it would be standing several feet above it.

The boys on the floating part

It will be really nice to have this, and even though our framer wasn't sure about what he was doing with this, I think he has done an awesome job with it.

I was standing on the floating part here, and the boys had crossed the bridge to go back up to the stationary part.

I found a color collection book at Sherwin Williams that is put out by HGTV that is called Rustic Refined. I'm going to try to use these colors all through my house. I love them all. I didn't want to do brick on the front of the house, so we went with the concrete board that needed to be painted, so I chose a color called Olive Grove for the outside of the house. I love the way it turned out.

Front of House - I think it was too bright outside when I took this one.

Another thing I love in houses is arched doorways. Or arched beams. Or really anything arched. Except for windows. Strangely I do not care for arched windows. Or maybe it's just the type of window treatments that you have to get with those. Anyway, here is one of my arches.

Next week we will have Sheetrock going up and our brick layer will begin laying the stone. And hopefully in the next 3 weeks our cabinets and trim will all get started. We've been hoping that we will be able to move into the house by Thanksgiving, but when I said that in front of a guy from Howtex, he just shook his head no.

To which I just rolled my eyes.

And hope it won't lead to another apology later on.

Weather, Sticks and Grout Color

I feel like this blog post is going to be all over the place, so I apologize in advance. I just have lots of thoughts going on in my head and don't even know where to start.

Oh wait. Yes I do. Let's start with this:

Can I just say that I wasn't sure cooler weather was even capable of coming back any time soon. There's just something about temps over 100 that makes this girl unhappy. And since we were going on the 684th day in a row of temps that high (ok, not really, but y'all know that's what it felt like), the last few days have been a welcomed relief. I may actually start running again.

Except maybe now it would be too cool. I guess you could call me a fair-weather exerciser, and the weather is rarely fair around these parts.

Anyhoo, it was actually cool enough yesterday evening for me to want to clean house. And no, I don't mean the house I am currently living in. I have completely given up on this house. We are out of room in this house, so cleaning really just becomes rearranging to try to make things fit better, and honestly I'd rather spend my time watching HGTV and yelling at the people for spending $500,000 on an 1100 sq ft condo that is a fixer-upper. Seriously? Where do these people live?!

Obviously the house cleaning last night took place in the new house. I do not understand why contractors can't come with their own trash bags to keep their trash in. I should not be responsible for their empty cigarette cartons, their dip spit cup, or their half-drank Dr. Peppers. This is my house people, not a landfill. Find a trash for goodness sake. And try picking up some healthier habits while you're at it.

Since we've been living in ridiculous temperatures with no rain for the past few months, our pond is VERY low. And I've always been bothered by the amount of sticks coming up out of the water in our pond, so Robbie hired a few of his friends to cut the sticks off while the water is still low. There is not enough money in the world that would make me want to do this.

But I'm thankful that there are people in this world that are not as bothered by poisonous snakes swimming toward you as I am. I know that once we get some rain, our pond will look better than it ever has, so thank you to Randy and Cody for risking your lives for us to have a pretty pond. Not sure it's worth risking your life over, but whatever floats your boat. Although, in this case, I feel the boat was a little unnecessary seeing as how they chose to not stay in it.

As far as house progress, not a whole lot since I last posted. The brick layer is close to being done with the brick part, but he still has a lot of stone that he has to lay. And it would help if we had the stone in, but maybe it will be here this week so he can get done and get out. Brad (from Howtex, who I HIGHLY recommend) and I spent more time than I care to admit looking at this picture-

trying to decide what color the grout is in this picture. This is the stone color I have picked out to go on our fireplace, chimney, and around the 22 beams we have going around our porch. I know it sounds like I'm being picky, but the grout color makes all the difference in the overall look and this is the look I want. I'm not sure what we even decided, but I have faith that Brad will make the right decision on this and my stone will be beautiful.

Or at least it will be done, which has recently become my goal.

 I JUST WANT IT DONE.

I know, patience is a virtue, and I'm trying. But I would really like for all of my worker people to realize that doing it right IS important to me, but really, I JUST WANT IT DONE.

I'm excited about getting to spend the day with my mom today on a road trip to Dallas. We are going to visit my Aunt Ruby and pick up some chairs from my birth mom in Mesquite. I know we will have a good time today. Time alone with her is rare and precious.

A short school week, a road trip with my mom, and soccer practice that I can actually make it through without breaking a sweat...sounds like it'll be a great week!

I do feel like I need to say that I have several people that I am close to going through very hard times right now. And even though I have all of this good and positive stuff going on in my life, I just want y'all to know that your problems and circumstances are weighing heavy on my heart. I am here for you and I am praying for you. I love all of my peeps and want nothing but happiness for you in your lives, and if there is anything I can do to help, just name it.

Y'all have a good one!