Parenting: Not for the faint of heart.

If there's anything that can single-handedly make you feel like a huge failure, and yet in the same breath like you're the best ever, it's parenting.

Parenting is hard, people.  And discipline is the worst part.

I truly hate it when my children make poor choices and force me to discipline them.  I don't like it at all.  But I know it's necessary.

Right now, when I'm in the midst of the discipline (and the silent treatment from one of above-mentioned children), it helps me to remember that I was no saint as a child.  I gave my parents plenty of attitude, but I think I turned out ok.  My brother really gave my parents a run for their money, but he's turned out ok, too.

And the saving grace in all of this is that both me and my brother have a wonderful relationship with my parents.  So I suppose there's still hope that my kids will get over the discipline and love me in the end, right?

Wrestle Mania: Part Two.

It's no secret that Taylor is seriously into wrestling these days.  In fact, almost every afternoon I get a phone call from him wherein he gives me all the details about who he just beat with what move on his WWE video game.

Last night he attempted some of those moves on his daddy.

Ashton thought it looked fun, so she jumped in too.

It didn't take long before Taylor ran to the kitchen to give me the run down of his match with daddy. Turns out Taylor was so effective with those moves that Joey had to tap out.

Taylor was proud, to say the least.

Weekend recap.

This weekend definitely had its ups and downs.

It started "up" when I headed to the new house after work to find our gorgeous front door, landscaping, blinds on all the windows, and door knobs.  It actually looks like a house!  I'm so excited for Friday I can hardly stand it.

Later that evening, I grabbed the kids and we headed to my parents house to put the final coat on Taylor's bed.  It's finally done!

The "bad" crept in later that night when Taylor started to get sick.  He'd had a cough earlier in the day, but now he had fever, too.  He is never sick, so this wasn't good.  On Saturday morning I ended up taking him to the med clinic - which was a good thing, because he has strep.  I picked up his prescriptions and we spent the rest of the day just laying around.

Sunday started to turn around though and Taylor was feeling much better.

Also, I've had my eye on this particular desk from World Market for the study in our new house.

It has been on sale, but the sale was ending, so it was time to go make the purchase.  When I called to be sure they had it in stock, they informed me that not only did they not have it in stock, but it had been discontinued.  (*cue major disappointment*)

After a brief hold, the manager informed me that they had the floor model and would be willing to sell it at a discount.

SCORE!!!

Long story short, I ended up snagging my desk ($230 original price) for $100!!

Now that makes for a good weekend!

Life in bullets.

• A week or so ago, Taylor was eating Fruity Pebbles for breakfast and saw a recipe on the side of the box.  He has been begging to make it ever since and last night, we finally tackled it.

 Fruity Pebbles Rice Krispy Treats

• Please love Taylor's blue nose.  No, he's not turning into a Smurf, he just had a cupcake with blue icing at school.
• I made the best chili last night and I can not wait to eat the leftovers for lunch.  I only wish I had made more so I could have it for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow as well.
• The house is ALMOST FINISHED!!!!  I'm so excited!  Earlier this week they installed all the wood floors. Yesterday, they were installing the carpet in the bedrooms and they had already installed the appliances.  8 days!
• I ordered that Amazon $20 for $10 gift card yesterday through LivingSocial.  It was great timing since I was about to order Taylor's karate uniform on Amazon, but I had no idea that I couldn't actually use it then.  Does anyone know when it will come?
• Moving is a pain.  Especially moving into a new construction neighborhood.  I have tried to set up all of our utilities, phone, cable, etc. but most of the time when I call they can't find our address.  This is understandable since we'll be the first house on the street, only the third house in the neighborhood, but c'mon!  A girl needs her TV!
• These, my friends, and the bomb-diggity.  So yummy!!

• I need to put a clear coat on Taylor's new bed and then it should be ready for moving day.  Hopefully I can finish it this weekend.

Subway art.

I must admit, I'm really loving the whole subway art thing that seems to be everywhere these days.

Jessica, at Craftily Ever After, is so gracious to make these for almost every occasion and post them on her site for FREE!!  Yes, FREE!

She just posted one for Valentine's.  Click HERE to check it out and get it for yourself.

Karate Kid

Taylor has been begging to take karate for a while now and last night, his dream came true. 

I know this picture is blurry, but it's the best I've got.

Joey took Taylor, so I wasn't able to see him in action, but this morning, he was more than happy to show me all of his moves and tell me how his Sensei taught them to get away from someone who may be trying to choke them.

This should come in handy on a daily basis with his sister. :)

I made a bed!

A few weeks ago, I told you that my dad and I made the headboard portion of a complete bed that we were planning on making for Taylor.  On Saturday, we finished the bed!  (Well, it still needs a clear coat, but other than that, it's finished.)

I have to say that dad and I work pretty well together and we both had a great time.  We were also pretty ingenious when it came to on-the-fly solutions.

There was so much sanding.  So.Much.Sanding.

And let me tell you, conditioning the wood takes some major concentration. At least it appears that way.

Oh goodness, the stain.  Dad and I were wearing gloves (medical gloves) and just in case you ever need to know this, oil-based stain will eat through those gloves leaving your fingers a lovely shade of Minwax Red Mahogany.

And because Dad and I were so proud of our (Taylor's) bed, we signed it.  We didn't have a wood burner (because we're not professionals... YET!) so we just used a Sharpie.

And the best part?  Taylor loves it!

In case you're wondering, I found the plans here.  I absolutely love this site and have a growing list of furniture to feed my dad's and my new hobby.

My boy.

On Wednesday evening, Joey and I were planning on attending a birthday party for one of his academy classmates.  By the time I got home from work, the kids had already headed out to dinner at IHOP with Joey's mom, so I didn't get to see either of them.

We got to the party around 7:45 and were only there for about 30 minutes when I got a call from Taylor asking me when I was coming home.  He was upset that he hadn't seen me all day and started to cry.

And my heart broke.

He cried and cried and begged me to come home. I told him how much I love him and that as soon as I got home I would come to his room and wake him up and then we could snuggle for a bit.  He reluctantly agreed.

When I got home, I did exactly what I said I would, only Taylor would not wake up for anything!  I stroked his hair and whispered, "Mommy's home.  I love you baby." But he wouldn't budge.  I tried and tried for probably 10 minutes before I tucked him snugly in bed and headed to bed myself.

Yesterday morning he woke up in such a bad mood.  I asked him what was wrong and he said that he was mad because I said I would wake him up but I didn't. I tried not to laugh while explaining to him exactly how hard I tried to wake him, but he wouldn't budge.

Then I snuggled the grumpies right of him and he seemed to be ok.

Girls' night.

Last night I got together with some great girl friends.  We've been friends since the 5th grade and love to get together when we're all in the same place.  At one time we were scattered and all in different cities (states, countries), but now 3 out of 4 of us are here in town.  Whenever Kristy (the only one who isn't here permanently) comes to visit we all try to get together for coffee, at least, but our favorite is Mexican food and margaritas - which we managed to make happen last night.

We had such a great time catching up and laughing that we almost forgot to get a picture.

I said almost.

(Cathy, Me, Kristy, Tina. - Yes, Cathy & Tina are twins.)

Right before this picture, the waiter asked us if we saw each other often (we had just handed him 6 different picture taking devices).  Tina , without hesitation and completely straight-faced, said, "Yeah.  We come here every week, we just like to take pictures."  And we all busted out laughing.

We had such a great time and I'm hoping we can all get together one more time before Kristy and her family head back to California.

It's cold. Even in South Texas!

Yesterday Twitter and FB were blowing up with everyone talking about their snow days.  People were home, schools were closed, and movies were watched.

There was snow as close as Dallas, but no such luck for those of us in Central/South Texas.  What we had was 40 degrees, wet, and nasty.  And work.  We cant' forget work.

And since people in South Texas can't drive if there is any sort of moisture falling from the sky, this is what it felt like on my drive home, only darker, wetter, and without the trees.



It took me well over an hour to make a 30 minute commute.  It was brutal.

And when I walked through the door at home, I noticed that it was pretty chilly.  Then we found out the heater was broken and couldn't be fixed until this morning.  It dipped below freezing last night.

So when the kids were ready for bed, I tucked them in beneath piles and piles of blankets, covered up almost over their heads.  I wish I had a picture but I was too concerned with making sure we didn't all turn into ice cubes during the night.

Luckily, we all had use of our extremities this morning and thankfully, the heater should be fixed today.

Rare moments.

Most of the time I'm breaking up fights between the kids.

Someone looked at me.  Someone hit me.  Someone won't change the channel.  Someone was born!

On and on it goes.

However, there are some rare moments when Ashton and Taylor actually appear to love each other.  And I don't want to foget those times.

Over Christmas break, I caught them in the act of enjoying each other and working together.  They built a tent in one of the bedrooms (out of Ashton's princess pop-up tent from when she was younger) and had designated each corner for different activities: reading, coloring, DS playing, and resting.

I love it when I stumble upon them having fun together.  They do actually love each other, it's just that most of the time, they don't want anyone to know. :)

Everyone's a comedian.

Yesterday afternoon, I had the following text conversation with Ashton:

Ashton: If shorts r called shorts, why arent pants called longs?

Me: You're silly.

Ashton: I know.

In one of her magazines, they had tons of questions like this and about a week ago, she got a major kick out of asking us every single question.  (And then laughing hysterically at herself.)

They really are curious, no?  I mean, why are pants called pants and not longs?

And another?  How do "Don't walk on the grass" signs get in the grass?

And, why do you wear a pair of underwear, but only one bra?

Yes, these are the things that boggle the mind of an 11 year old girl.

Love this girl!

Progress.

The house is moving right along and we are so excited every time we see significant progress.

Over the holidays, our cabinets were installed.  LOVE!

The cabinet space itself is enough to make crazy, since there are over twice the number of cabinets than what I had in our old house.  Seriously excited!!  But I do have a favorite cabinet:

It's the little things, people.  The little things.

Then they textured and painted the walls.

And poured the driveway.

When they were bricking the house in mid-December, they actually ran out before they could finish the back and some of the accents in the front.  The brick was delivered over the holidays and yesterday, they got in completed.  So excited!!

Our contractor told us that the counter tops should be installed this week.  Yesterday they installed the counter tops in the bathrooms, but no kitchen granite yet.  This is what I'm really waiting for!

However, my absolute favorite thing was delivered yesterday, but not installed just yet.  My bath tub!

Like I said, it's the little things.  But I day dream nearly every night of relaxing in my jetted tub after the kids are in bed.  Music playing, candles lit, a glass of wine... well, I don't drink wine, so nix that, but it's a nice day dream, huh?

Out of the mouth of... Taylor.

Saturday evening, the kids and I were at my parents.  Taylor and I were sitting on the couch with my parents watching Batman, when during a commercial, my parents told me they were planning on taking a trip in February to celebrate my dads 60th birthday.  (My mom will be 60 this year also.)

Taylor gasped and looked at my dad and said, "How can you be 60?!?  You only look 40!!  Really, you do.  You look 40!"

My mom thought she'd try to get in on the action and asked Taylor how old she looked.

"Oh, you look 40, too!  Wait, what am I saying?  You look 35!"

Yeah, Taylor's got a way with the ladies, no?

(Although, I must say that this morning, as I was finishing up my hair, Taylor came to the bathroom and said, "Mom, your hair doesn't look good.  It's all frizzy!"  So... he's not always trying to score points.  Sometimes he's just brutally honest.)

A DIY New Year.

New Year's Eve was extremely low-key, to say the least.  Joey had to work, so the kids and I, along with Mimi, had pizza and movie night.

Then I went to bed.  At 10:15.

I know, I know, but I'm just really not into the whole "midnight" thing.  I need my sleep.  And I had to get up early on Saturday because I had a big project to tackle with my dad.

Several months back, when we were getting the house ready to go on the market, I became addicted to DIY and decorating websites.  One day I came across this site, and got seriously motivated to build all sorts of things.  At the time, I was frequenting Home Depot and framing mirrors, creating artwork, installing chair rails, and painting like crazy.  So building furniture seemed like a natural progression. (ha ha)

The first thing I wanted to tackle was a bed for Taylor.  Other than his crib (which transitioned to his toddler bed), he's never had an actual bed, only a frame and mattress.  I thought it was high time for an upgrade.

This is what I chose:

Image from www.ana-white.com

I thought it looked simple enough, so I enlisted my dad to help.  We made our first trip (of three) to Home Depot early Saturday morning to purchase all the supplies and got started building.

There was a ridiculous amount of sanding to be done. Who knew?

And that became the back to the headboard.

It's all a little fuzzy, but I think this is about where it started to fall apart.  Not the bed per se, but the actual supplies.  I was certain on our first trip that we had every piece of wood in the correct dimensions, but alas, I was incorrect.

So, back to the depot we went.  Luckily we were working with a wonderful associate.  Big shout out to Doug!  He was super helpful and made the process a lot less stressful. Hey, we needed a lot of stuff!

Once we returned from our second trip to the depot, things moved right along.  There was more sanding to do, but then came more nailing.  Taylor was dying to help, so he started with helping us clean the dust off of the freshly sanded boards.

What he really wanted to do was use the hammer, but for now he just watched.

It didn't take very long for me to feel sorry for him, though. My dad took his life (or at least his fingers) into his own hands and helped Taylor with the hammer.

Once we got the legs on (above) it was smooth sailing!  Well, except for that one other trip to Home Depot, but we're not talking about that.

Yes, what I thought would only take us a couple hours ended up taking the entire day, but we're so happy with it, we plan on building the base this weekend.(And then we will stain it... but again, not talking about that.)

Thanks Dad for all your help!  I (quite literally) couldn't have done it without you!