YTD

2016, so far.

1. The dishwasher leaked (again) and pretty much destroyed what was left of our already ratched kitchen floor. I am determined to get the floor replaced this year (it WILL be done!).

2. Jeremy's Grandfather passed away.

3. Our older than dirt dryer retired (i.e. stopped drying). Short of having to finish up some already washed laundry at my Grandma's house, this was a small hiccup since we had a new dryer two days later. (Jeremy is still trying to make friends with the new dryer...it doesn't seem to like him)

4. I finally finished my cross stitch that I have been working on for a year.

5. Jeremy and I went to a lyp-synch battle. Us, out on a Thursday night! We are wild and crazy. (Never mind that we were still home and in bed by 10:30)

6. I've discovered the greatness of a good cider.

7. My football team won the superbowl. (My sister still owes me a drink) I'm not sure where my loyalties will lie next year if Payton decides to retire.

8. Jeremy took me to a play. It was a short and funny comedy about dating, mating, and marriage. I'm not sure we've ever been to a play together before (if we have, it was because my sister was in it..oh, did you not know..my sister is wicked talented).

9. I've been stitching up a whole pile of cute burp clothes to give as gifts. It's the season for having babies, apparently.

10. I've seen exactly ONE movie at the theatre. (How to be Single, if you must know).

The Dog's Guide to Life

Every day when I get home from work, I immediately let the dogs outside in the back yard. While I give them time to do their thing I do a few chores around the house. Sometimes I sneak to the back window to see if either of them are standing at the back door waiting to come back in. I say sneak because if the weather is nice I don't expect them to come right back in, but if Lola sees me or hears me...no matter how much she is enjoying her sunny spot...she'll want to come back inside. So I spy on my dogs.

Yesterday I did my usual sneak-a-peek out the back window. Both Duke and Lola were sitting in the sun just watching the world go by. I don't know why this time, out of all the other times I've checked on them, it struck me how simple a dog's life must be. My dog's were just enjoying the beautiful weather. They don't have cell phones to distract them, no iPad or Kindle. They don't have to try and snap the perfect selfie of their porch sitting to share on social media (guilty!). They don't have to check-in to let everyone know where they are and what they are doing. They have no distractions...and no one to validate how awesome their day is.

The truth is dogs don't need anyone to tell them how awesome their life is. Dogs just know that it is, in fact, the greatest thing ever. Their enthusiasm for life, even when no one else is looking, is something I hope to strive towards.

New Adventures

Last summer I bought a cross stitch kit as a Christmas present for my sister. It's the Tardis from Doctor Who and it says 'Tardis Sweet Tardis'. I started working on it as soon as I got it, but thankfully I didn't get far before my mom checked my progress. Turns out it's called a counted cross stitch for a reason! Ha ha. I learn something new every day. I started the cross stitch border on the very edge of the aida cloth and my mom gently encouraged me to count out from the center of the picture guide. Turns out that my entire cross stitch pattern was going to be much smaller than the size of the cloth. She set me up with an embroidery hoop to hold the cloth and a storage box for all my
thread and cute little scissors. And once I had counted and started over again in the correct spot, I was in business.

But...I found that I was having a hard time making myself sit at home and work on it. I was too distracted with the TV and the animals and the husband and the Facebook. So, I was lucky enough to be invited to join a sewing group. I know, I wasn't really sewing but the ladies were nice enough to let me come and sit there doing my cross stitch. And I really, really enjoyed it. As Christmas drew closer, I finished up the cross stitch and decided to make it into a pillow. I ordered the fabric online and brought it along to the sewing group. One of the ladies, my co-worker, was nice enough to help a girl out and sewed it all together for me.

Once I was finished with that, I started wondering what I was going to work on next..so that I could keep going to the sewing group. I have a sewing machine. My mom gave it to me for Christmas years ago. But its been up in a closet unused for nearly all that time. Was it time to actually get it down and learn how to sew? Once the thought was in my head, I couldn't get it out. So I took to trusty Pinterest for simple, easy, beginner sewing projects. One project I came across was a tie-on dinosaur tail for little kids. I'm not sure how "beginner" this project was considered but I really wanted to do it for my friend's little boy. He turned three this week and I thought it would be the perfect gift.

Instead of getting my own sewing machine down (I'm working up to it) I took the fabric and directions to my Grandma. Thank goodness she was there to help me because I would have never figured it out on my own. Keeping to the seam allowance is SUPER important, I learned.

I did most of the sewing, and some of it had to be ripped out and re-sewn. But my Grandma did do a little bit of the sewing for me (mostly because I was over there for three hours and it was getting late). Either way, for better or worse, the tail was made and shipped off to the birthday boy.

It's the elusive Kidasaurus.

According to my friend, Jonessa, the tail was a real hit with Jethro and he even sent me a video to show off his dino ROAR!

Well, as much fun as I had putting that together, I did it outside of the sewing group. So, I still have to come up with a new project (maybe one that actually includes my own sewing machine). I might try infinity scarves next. How hard can that be?

I have another cross stitch kit heading my way...in case this whole sewing thing doesn't work out.

All the cool kids are doing it

New years always means RESOLUTIONS! You know the age old typical resolutions. This is THE year we are going to get lean and clean up our diet..right?! The TV is overflowing with ads for diet plans and exercise DVD's and equipment. According to Jillian Michaels you can just WALK AWAY the pounds..its so revolutionary! The greatest thing since sliced bread....which none of us are allowed to eat anymore...right?!



Except, March rolls around. And the newness has been brutally worn off by reality and daily life. Changing long held habits is hard. It's not fun...no, it's not. It really, really sssuuuccckkkss. It takes up a lot of time and it costs a lot of money. Especially if you want to go all in on a gym membership/diet plan/personal trainer. You have to pay all kind of fees, buy a ton more work out clothes (or do laundry every night), buy all new organic, locally grown, fresh foods and cooking supplies. Have you seen how much that crap costs?!

So, I've pretty much given up even making new year resolutions. But that doesn't mean that a sister can't try and set teeny tiny goals..that don't take a new wardrobe or gym membership to accomplish. This year I'm going to try and drink more water. I just need to do it, it's good for me and I can do it while sitting down. I'm going to try and make better food choices. I started tracking my food on myfitnesspal again. I'm going to try really hard not to let the calorie goal be a hard line in the sand for me. It's really ok if I go over it, I just want to be more mindful of what I'm eating on a daily basis.

Using a lettuce leaf rather than a tortilla is a smart move.

Making sweet potato, broccoli, and chicken for dinner is a good choice.

All I really want to do is stay hydrated, not snack too much, find fun and inexpensive ways to eat a little better, and get off my butt and workout a little more (not every day...don't be crazy). Here's to 2015 and small and manageable life changes.

X is for..Xtreme Eyebrow Grooming

Day 24. One Beauty Product You Can't Live without

I don't wear a lot of make-up. Actually, I wear zero make-up most of the time. I might slap on some moisturizer but that's about it.

This is how you will find me 95% of the time, sans make-up:

Here I am for the other 4% of the time, with a little foundation, mascara, and lip gloss:

And here I am for the other 1% of the time, this is as fancy as I get:

No matter what sort of make-up I put on my face, there is one thing that I absolutely must stay on top of. It's the brows. I have a fine set of beautifully shaped eye brows. I get compliments on my eye brows all the time, seriously.

As great as they are naturally, they can get a bit unruly if I don't stay mindful. So I would have to say my one beauty product that I can't live without is my tweezers (and eyebrow brush and small grooming scissors). In addition to the normal tweezing I do, I have to give my eyebrows trims. You know how when you go to the hair dresser for a trim and they hold the ends of your hair between their fingers and snip? I do that, with my eyebrow brush.

Call me a professional eyebrow stylist.

My sister and I even had a discussion on my occasional morning gnarly brow. My eye brow hairs can be standing in all kinds of crazy directions in the morning. So she gave me eyebrow gel for Christmas one year, to tame my gnarly brows. And I use it too! Nothing worse than snapping a great picture..just to realize that the gnarly brow as struck again.

S is for...Simple

Day 19. What makes you happy

This guy..this guy makes me happy.

My babies make me happy.

 

Our love cottage makes me happy.

My family makes me happy.

 



Is anyone still here?

Hi.

I'm Jinny. You may remember me from back in the day when I actually posted regularly to this blog. Work totally and utterly devoured my life for about four months. Most everything outside of work came to a screeching halt. But that doesn't mean that nothing has been going on.

So, let me get you all caught up.

The hallway project we started in March has finally come to a (almost) finish. It's down to painting doors, so I'm calling it finished.

We've started on the bedroom but it's going at a snails pace. Which is fine, we aren't on any time schedule here.

We spruced up our outdoor space. The café table and chairs was actually a surprise birthday present from Jeremy. I went out of town for a weekend and when I got home this was waiting for me. I cried, I was so surprised.

I've been out of town a few times. I went to a wedding in Austin. So, Kenedi, the bride, met my sister when they were both in college. This is how I met Kenedi. Eventually Kenedi ended up in San Marcos and started going to the same church that my cousin and her husband work at. So now Kenedi is practically part of the family so when she got hitched this summer we all had to be there.

I went to Canyon, TX to see Texas, the musical, at Palo Duro Canyon. It was a charter bus trip and my Grandma invited me to go (who says no to their Grandma? Not this girl). It was a fun trip and I had a good time spending the weekend with the ladies of my family. I'm very thankful that my aunt Gail didn't laugh at me while I had a death grip on her hand when the charter bus drove us down into the canyon. It was pretty hair raising.

Aunt Bev, Grandma, Great Aunt Lynette

 My Mom and I went to Dallas to help my sister get her new apartment situated. She's lived in Dallas for many years now but this is the first time she has ever had an apartment by herself. After living with our cousin for years we have jokingly compared it to a divorce. I wasn't sure what she got to keep or what she needed to replace. So we went shopping and did manly things, like put together furniture.

We adopted a new family member! Ferguson, the fish. He's pretty low maintenance, doesn't make a peep, and doesn't need a lot of attention...no nail clippings or insulin shots, no grooming or heart guard meds, no walks or toys required. And he is pretty to look at.

We had to take Harley to get her teeth cleaned. I wouldn't even mention this but her recovery from the anesthesia and pain meds was unlike anything we've had to deal with before. If any of y'all have had to have a pet put under to have any type of work done, I'm sure you are familiar with the little speech the office people give you on the way out. "Keep them quiet", "They might not feel like eating", "They will probably be drowsy", etc. In the past, all of our pets have bounced back from being put under with ease, not even a hitch. But poor Harley girl, she's old and doesn't bounce like that. She couldn't walk, but she sure did try, and when she fell over she would just lay very still like 'I'm just going to stay right here'. She was the funniest little drunk kitty ever. But while it was funny, it was sad at the same time because we could tell her mouth was bothering her. They extracted 5 teeth and noted that there were others already missing. So now we call her Toothless.

So, you see, I haven't been a complete couch potato this summer (although there was plenty of couch wallowing). Overtime at work is easing off, for now, and I really hope to have more time to come back to this space. I've missed it.

 





Life on the home front.

Every morning, when I walk out of the kitchen to the living room to open the curtains, Lola pops her leg up in the air and insists that I give her a belly rub. A morning belly rub to get her through the day. A day full of lolling and sleeping. Her life is so rough.

Summer is coming at us like a fright train, with temps reaching the 100's already. On days like that the ground gets too hot to take the dogs for walks. So we take them on rides instead, which suits Duke just fine...especially when we roll the window down for him.

Jeremy surprised me with roses, chocolates, and Mother's Day cards from him and the fur kids on Saturday. But that wasn't ALL..he also brought me new plants for our front yard. West Texas is in a serious drought. Just about everyone's lawn is brown and dead due to severe water restrictions. Between no water and the extreme heat in the summer and rare freezing temps we have had the last few winters, many of our trees and shrubs have died. So Jeremy spent his day out in the heat, chopping down trees and digging up plants. And planting new, pretty things.

 

On Sunday, we had my mom and Jeremy's parents over the lunch (next time I promise to have dessert, Mom). Dolly was there too, of course. I didn't get a picture, but I painted her nails a silvery-white (she brought me the polish she wanted to use). We also watched one of her favorite movies, currently, 'Dear Dumb Diary'. I swear the songs will be stuck in my head for days. But it was still a cute movie.

I hope you had a fabulous Mother's Day weekend!