I Rock. According to My Nephew.

I rock.

Obviously.

If you can't tell, this is a drawing of me, courtesy of my 7 year old nephew, Jackson.

I have an egg-shaped mid-section.

Stick arms & legs.

Only 3 fingers per "hand".

And, flipper-feet.

But, you know what?

I LOVE IT.

Besides hugs & kisses, this drawing means more to me than anything Jackson has given me. EVER.

Jackson made this yesterday, while he & Riley were over at our house, hanging out & playing Wii.

Riley's OBSESSED with coming over to our house.

Ever since the last time she & Jack spent the night with us (about a month ago), my sister says she asks just about everyday if it's time to go back to Rah-Rah & Mop's house.

(If you're not a faithful reader of this blog, "Mop" is what they call Matt...although now, they also call him "my Moppie" or "Moppie". It started when Riley was 18 months old. We were trying to get her to say "Matt". She had a cold & her nose was stopped up, so it came out sounding like "Mop". We thought it was so cute...and, it just stuck).

Anyway, I love the fact that she wants to come over & play with us. I never knew it was possible for a 4 year old to make ME feel so special.

And, here I thought I was supposed to make HER feel special?

Amazing how love works.

Yesterday morning around 11:30am, I get a phone call from Riley.

"Hi Rah-Rah. Can I come to your house today?"

"Hi Sissy! You want to come to my house?"

"Yes. Can you draw a rainbow?"

(Here is where I must the rainbow business. For the past 2 years or so, every time she has come over, we always get out the markers & paper & sit at the kitchen table & draw. The first thing she ALWAYS asks for is a rainbow. She tells me what colors she wants & what order & I draw it. And, then she usually asks me to write her name by it...each letter in a different color).

How can I say no to her?

I can't.

So, Matt & I pick both Riley & Jackson up & we went to the mall to get Matt's hair cut. While we were there, we had to get pretzels. It's a tradition. Go to mall. Get pretzel.

They also got balloon animals. Riley got a purple teddy bear & Jackson got a black & grey sword & belt. Except that the sword popped in the car, so Jack turned it into a hat.

Riley is holding the popped sword. She made it into a "jumpy thing" for her bear to bounce up & down on. (Yes, she's in a car seat because I haven't had time to get her a booster seat yet. But, she didn't complain).

Jackson's trying to be very still so that his new hat doesn't fall off.

Anyway, when we got to our house, Mop & Jack played football on the Wii, while Riley & I drew...you guessed it: a rainbow! We also drew a birthday cake with candles & balloons.

We also played checkers & a muddy game of touch football in the backyard.

They had fun playing with Maisy & trying to get her to chase them around the house.

We must have worn Riley out because on the drive back to my sister's house, we did everything we could to keep her awake...which included playing Kenny Chesney's new song over & over.

The kids were disappointed they couldn't spend the night with us, but Matt & I already had plans to go to a local bar & watch his friends' band play.

Which, by the way, they ROCKED! If you have iTunes (which, who doesn't?), search for Fundamental Elements. The lead singer's a guy Matt graduated high school with.

Anyway, it was awesome to get to spend the day with J & Riley. We sure do love them!

Growing Up.

I knew this day was coming.

I knew I'd be sad when it did.

I also knew that when it did, there would be nothing I could do to stop it.

My precious, beautiful, wonderful 4-year-old niece, Riley, is now the proud owner of a brand new purple & pink BOOSTER SEAT.

No more car seat.

She's got BIG KID status now.

My sister called me this morning & said Riley wanted to tell me something.

She got on the phone & with sheer excitement, said "Rah-Rah!! Mommy got me a new pink & purple booster seat!!".

She's so proud of herself because now she gets to be just like her big brother in the car.

When we moved Jackson from a car seat to a booster seat, I was sad, but not as sad as I am with Riley. Because Riley was still in a car seat.

I knew there would be at least 3 years before she moved to a booster.

That day is today.

Oh, so sad.

This means that this weekend, Matt & I will have to go buy her a booster seat for her to use in our car. I can just feel the lump in my throat.

And, if that's not enough, I also realized today that my oldest niece will be EIGHT in May.

If only we could just freeze time for a little while.

Our (Almost) Finished Entryway.

Well, Matt & I decided on a color that wasn't one of the 2 (3) choices. We ended up picking "Pastel Sage" (thanks to the help from Matt's mom). And, it's very pretty. We like it a lot.

We bought the primer & paint last Friday night after work. It was rainy & stormy that night, so it made for perfect painting weather (inside painting, that is). We started priming at 9:30 or 10.

I don't think we really thought we'd finish the priming that night, but we did.

Er, actually we finished about 1am Saturday morning.

On Saturday, we ran some errands, then came home & starting painting. It only took us about 4 hours to do the whole entryway (it's not that big of an area).

Matt's feet. He spent the majority of the time on the ladder painting the top half of the walls & it was hot up there, so he took off his shirt. He thinks he's fat (which he's NOT) & he wouldn't let me take a picture of his upper half. So, I got his feet.

There are no pictures of me painting because I'm the "picture taker", so I took one of my hand to show that yes, I painted.

On Sunday, we went shopping around town to find pieces for the entryway. This is the view of the front door if you're standing in the living room. I have had that vase looking thing for a few years now...I bought the fake grass stuff at Target.

The picture we found at Kirkland's. My picture of the picture doesn't show all the green that's in it. You'll just have to take my word for it that it matches & really brings out the green on the wall.

If you walk towards the front door, this little area is to the left. I've had the lamp for a while, but Maisy chewed the cord off, so Matt had to buy a new cord/plug kit to fix it. There's no outlet in the entryway (why, I don't know), so we'll have to get an electrician to put one in. The frame to the left is our "bargain" deal we found at Target. It was on sale for $9.99. The pictures in the frame are ones we have taken on some of our vacations.

This is the same area (see the lamp?). The table (that you can't see very well) is an antique. It's been in my family for years. I got the table runner at Kirkland's, as well as the thing on the wall (which is Matt's favorite purchase). I need to put a small candle on that little ledge. I'm also not finished decorating the table. I plan to put a framed picture, as well as a small plant or something on the top of it.

So, there you have it. What do you think?

Hopefully, we'll do the hardwood floors in April...that's when the place we're buying it from is having a big sale.

Not A Good Day.

I don't have much time to write, but I have two MAJOR prayer requests.

The first is my mom's best friend's husband, Bud.

He was having horrible stomach pain Sunday afternoon & went to the emergency room. Doctors ran test after test & diagnosed him with Stage 4 colon cancer, as well as liver cancer.

He's 47 years old.

The second is for my mom's family. Her aunt passed away last night. Well, she's my aunt, too. I guess my great aunt, right? She's my granddad's sister.

Anyway, she's been sick, but was getting better & then she fell. While in rehab, she was unresponsive. But, a few days later, she woke up & was doing really good, or so we thought.

My mom, sister & I were even planning a trip to Houston to visit her in a week or two.

So, please pray for Bud & for my mom & our family. This is a lot for my mom to handle at once & she's really upset.

I'll write more later, especially about Bud.

Thank you!

Pie, Anyone?

Would you like some pie?

Well, you'll have to ask my husband first.

Because he bought all 5 boxes (with TWO slices of pie in EACH box) to eat all by himself.

He found these when we were grocery shopping at Wal*Mart on Friday night. However, not sure he would like it, he only bought one box of the peanut butter pie.

Much to his delight, he liked it.

He ate one piece Friday after dinner & the other piece Saturday night.

And, when I got home from shopping yesterday, this is what I found in the freezer. A HUGE stack of pies. 3 peanut butter (or really 6) & 2 key lime (or really 4) pie boxes.

In case your math skills are like mine (i.e.: they suck), that's TEN PIECES OF PIE.

It hasn't even been 24 hours & 2 boxes are already gone.

But, to be fair, he DID share one of the peanut butter pies with me.

Narrowed Down.

Ok, people.

It seems we have narrowed down our choices for flooring & paint to 2 (each).

And, WE HAVE DECIDED NOT TO PAINT THE WALLS RED OR PINK.

Here are the two pictures of the floors.

This is called "Tobacco Road".

Not sure what this one is called. I tried to zoom into the picture to see what it says on the label, but I couldn't read it. So, we'll just call this one brown.

Here are the paint choices. The one on the left is called "Sea Grass" & the one on the right is "Apple". I really like the Sea Grass, but I included the Apple to get your opinion.

The one we like on this sample is at the top, "Aloe Essence".

We have a guy coming out on Friday to give us an estimate on how much it would cost to do hardwood in the entryway & kitchen. We're probably not going to do the kitchen right now, UNLESS he quotes us a really, really good deal. I don't see that happening though.

So, what do y'all think?