snow day

tomorrow is supposed to be a SNOW DAY! yea! just heard on the news that abilene is expecting 6-10". that's just crazy talk. i can't wait and hope we experience an end of winter storm!

also, does anyone think that it's ironic that our little emily ended up on the nascar date? oh abc...

i'm not going to lie, i almost cried. we are cheering loudly for her in our house! :)

also, i'm bringing it back old school with a trapp candle from my jordan taylor days!

lemongrass verbena is the current scent. it smells like spring has sprung in our casa!

happy monday!

bad book club member

i have been a terrible book club blogger!!!

i have to admit, i finished the help a few weeks ago. i couldn't put it down and just kept reading (all day one saturday, actually - missed my house cleaning day). i did a terrible job blogging about it. i only blogged one time. but, i was facinated by the stories that kathryn stockett came up with and how real they were. although the ending was sad, it was so realistic. i won't go into detail, but i closed the book with great satisfaction. everything was so honest. if stockett would have chosen a softer ending, i think the book would have lost all of it's truth. don't get me wrong, i'm a "happily ever after" kinda gal so i was a little let down.

the help was a great book for me to get back on the reading wagon. i really plan to read water for elephants by sara gruen, our next book club choice. i can't promise i'll be more engaged, but i'm going to try my hardest!

i'm off to the book store to make my little purchase! i love the idea of reading a book. i don't think i'll ever make the move to the new digital books. i'm too oldschool. do you remember the scene between mr. big and carrie in satc I, where they talk about her love for library books? thats kinda how i feel about any book - even new ones have an intoxicating smell of glue and paper  ;)

happy thursday! thank goodness it's almost the weekend!

bathroom redo

while i was in dallas, mr. b did a major overhaul to our ONE and ONLY bathroom. we tried to plan it so that he could work without my high maintenance self running in and out every 5 minutes to use the facilities...

our plain little bathroom before the redo:

after mr. b removed all of the tile...

i know, this picture is gross, but it's necessary to see how much work he put into it!

after he put in the concrete boards...

the laying of the tile

tada! project complete!

when i returned from market, we painted the bathroom hathaway gold (benjamin moore). 

and i'm ordering this shower curtain in honeycomb (far right) from pb...

i'm so proud of my hubby for his hard work! he took off a few days from work and got it knocked out in less than a week.

he's such a handy man. :)

behind

my little blogging heart is soooo behind! i've spent several days getting ready for my trip to dallas, and while i'm gone, mr. b plans to RE-TILE the bathroom! needless to say, we've been a little busy. we both took a break last night to watch the bachelor. for some reason, this season has been my favorite. i think it's because of this little cutie:

miss emily makes me wish i was still blond...

several of us have decided that she needs to be the next bachelorette if silly brad doesn't pick her!

and this chick makes me irate.

doesn't michelle make you mad? so tacky!

also, did you watch miss america on saturday night?

we did!

little miss nebraska won me over with her piano skillz...

but not with her roots.

it was between her, and the ventriloquist, miss arkansas

but after miss texas got the boot, i really wanted miss hawaii to win

so many fun, girly shows on over the weekend - the golden globes were entertaining as well (i have to admit, we didn't watch much, i owed mr. b a movie night so we watched the social network - soooo good!)

have a great week, i'm off to the big d for work!

brilliant

pure brilliance by michael kors...

not that there was ever any doubt in the greatness of mk...

but i'm in love with this concept

 

maybe a valentines day gift

hint, hint

images found here.

december: happy birthday...

i'm a little late in my december birthday posts but two of my favorite people celebrated their 27th birthdays just a few weeks ago...

photo from here

happy birthday to mama jess on december 12...

a precious friendship developed with you dear friend just a little over a year ago. we have grown even closer since you moved to dfw & the arrival of little miss junebug! i'm

so happy that our paths crossed in abilene - i have been blessed by this friendship and couldn't be more thankful for our little group of supper club gals! 

december 29 was lindsay-lou's day of birth...

my sweet lindsay... remember this picture? our babies were soooo little!

i'm glad you still have gigi... i hope that coco found a happy home after she ran away...

i love, love, love you sweet friend. you have blessed my life for (going on!) 9 years (i wish i knew where the welcome week photos were...) i'm so excited to see the wonderful things that God has in store for you this year!

much love & God's blessings to you both in your 27th year!

pretty little girly things...

so i've been behind on reading other blogs lately (i haven't turned the home laptop on in 3-4 days). work is exhausting and i'm so worn out in the evenings - i can't seem to catch up on sleep. but today, i finally checked out a few updates and was thrilled to see these little beauties at lullaby lubbock's etsy shop . little "niecey" - becca & ryan's little pumpkin who's name has not yet been announced - will be getting one shortly. i can not wait to see it on her little head in april!

ps... i think mrs. j's little baby dumplin' may need one as well!

happy friday!

correction & the help discussion

well i lied... the blush & beautiful book club is not reading i do, now what. we are reading a book that is soooo much better. we are reading the help by kathryn stockett  and i haven't been into a book this much since i read the twilight series in so long. part of the process in the book club is to include the q & a on our own blogs.  if you have not read this book, i already highly recommend it...

discussion...

1. Right off the bat, who are your favorite characters? Why? What do you like about them?  hands down, my favorite character is minny. i love her attitude and her willingness to act/do/say whatever she wants! i think that chapter three has been the most entertaining so far.
2. Who are your least favorite characters? Why? What is it that you dislike? this is a toss up between hilly and elizabeth. they both seem so tart and superficial. it is so hurtful to read the interaction between elizabeth and mae mobely. i'm also saddened that hilly is so disrespectful to her mother!
3. Who are you most interested to learn more about?  i feel like this is a given - johnny & celia foote! there is such a secret looming over them. i can't wait to find out what it is!
4. What do you think the Terrible Awful Thing is that Minny did to Miss Hilly? ugh i'm almost afraid to even know! i think she may  have put something dead in the pie...
5. Why is Celia Foote hiding Minny from Mister Johnny? What is she afraid of? i think that celia is hiding minny because she isn't doing the housework & cooking like johnny expects. i feel like she's afraid because johnny could be very angry. from minny's prior experience with johnny (when he dated hilly), it's obvious that minny is scared of him as well.   
6. What kind of man do you perceive Mister Johnny to be? cold, proud, possibly embarrassed of celia's background.  
7. What do you think is to come from Miss Skeeter's question she asked Aibileen in the kitchen? do you ever wish you could... change things? such a loaded question. i would probably be offended if i were aibileen and some rich little white girl asked me that question. in all honesty, though, i think that skeeter wants to help change her community, and change the relationship between black and white people. she disagrees with the act that hilly wants to pass. i think her eyes are opening to the world around her and she knows it should be different.
8. What's your favorite line from Chapters 1-3? (mine is more like a paragraph!)

"... if I start praying for Miss Skeeter, I know that conversation gone continue the next time I see her. And the next and the next. Cause that's the way prayer do. It's like electricity, it keeps things going" (page 23).

book clubbin’

after weeks of boredom (and being jealous that my husband has occupied his time with new, Christmas-gift literature) mr. b encouraged me to start reading again. i loooooove to read. i was a huge reader in high school but once i started college i dropped the habit pretty quickly. after that, i never really got into it again. so, my new year’s “resolution” or goal (i hate resolutions, i never make them) is to read more. i have done so by joining a fancy little (online!) book club called the blush and bashful book club. i am so excited. i can’t wait for my little january book to come in, I Do, Now What? (giuliana & bill rancic)  i’ll be a little behind on the reading schedule but i can’t wait to talk about it with other ladies.

image from southern living


so for the next year i plan to curl up in my favorite chair (or in the bed!) and get to reading!


xoxo

happy new year!

wishing you a blessed and happy 2011!

 with our precious friends reed and lauren