Me & My Peeps

Normally, when I refer to my "peeps" - I am talking about my cute-as-sin husband and those three tag-alongs we spawned.  However, today I am going to introduce you to the gene pool; my mother's side of the family.

That's right - they all live here in Arizona ( 'cept forJesse who's sun tanning in the big "I" right now).

The picture fest is courtesy of our annual Father's Day get-together (we also celebrated my two nephew's birthdays). We had lunch at Peter Piper Pizza (for you out of towners, think Chuckie Cheese, but not as cheesy).  We are blessed to have so many really good people in our family.

I will note, for the sake of noting it - Marcos has to work today, so he missed the pizza, Mr. Pibb and bloated feeling. His loss. :)  We WILL celebrate Father's Day with him tomorrow (and my parents - my dad must feel sooo special, he gets doted on twice in one weekend!).

Without further  - wait... I should warn you. The title of this post is ME & My Peeps. Emphasis on ME. After you scan the photos below you will learn that I am, in fact, left handed.

Whew.

Let me break it down for ya:

Grandma and Grandpa have 4 kids (3 pictured)

One is Anita - she's married to Mark. They have 2 kids (1 pictured).

One is Brianne - she's married to Jason. They have 2 kids: Ben and Charlotte.

Grandma and Grandpa's second kid is Julie.

Julie is married to Mike. They have 3 kids (2 pictured).

One is Chell. She is married to Darryl. They have 2 kids: Austin and Evan.

The other one is Carrie. She's my counter-part (a little over a month apart in age!).

Grandma and Grandpa's third kid is my mom, Michelle.

Michelle is married to Dad (duh!) - Charles. They have 2 kids (1 pictured).

One is Jaime (me!) and I am married to Marcos. We have 3 kids: Alex, Isabel and Nic. I assume you already know this...

Their first born and favorite (don't worry, mom... I know and understand! He's special ed.) is Jesse (who has a daughter named Abby).

Whew! (again). We need to stop procreating, huh?

Well, if nothing else, someone can print this post off and show it to me when I am 90 and can't think straight.

I am exhausted and have to get ready for the parents' visit tomorrow. So I will sign off here... but don't you worry, tomorrow I will post all of the action shots!! ;) We were at a pizza joint, after all!

Happy Saturday!!

All good things must come to an end...

Especially if you have a 4 year old in the house.

Remember this lil' pretty?!

At 8am this morning, I was jolted out of a day-dream (while I was half-listening to a conference call) - by the sound of a SHATTER.

My cheap glass turned cool and twine-y vase is no more.

At least he spared the berries.

Grrr.

P.S. Hob Lob and Ross shopping yesterday - more to share over the next few days.

But, look at one of the things I got for my office:

Ignore the dust.

It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it!

My housekeeper is on strike.



Summer Nights

Seriously... I love summer nights. My fondest memories of my teenage years were when I lived in Ft. Knox, Kentucky. My friends and I would stay out late, either "walking the block" (don't take that the wrong way, it was so rated G. Okay, maybe PG-13), or hanging out in front of our house.

I've always wanted that for my kids - to have a place they can hang out at, stay out late and talk with their friends. Our neighborhood is able to offer that.  I've mentioned a few million times, we have a park and basketball court right in front of our house. I love being able to sit outside and watch the kids, or peek my head out to call them in when I need them for something.

Alex and Isabel asked if they could go out again tonight to play some ball. I obliged; after all, The Voice was on, Nic was asleep and Marcos was working beside me on the couch.

In that first picture... that third person that doesn't belong to me?! I wonder if that's the sudden interest in hanging out late at the park. lol...  Her name is Krystal, she's the niece of our new neighbor - she visits quite often! She's the same age as Alex, yet her and Isabel get along too.

Hey - if they are out doing something active, instead of staying couped up playing video games or Facebooking, then I am all for it!

'sides... that's why momma has the house in front of the park and a camera! =)
I know ALL the tricks!

My thoughts on Blogging

Found this in my draft folder... thought I'd post since I didn't have a chance to do anything fun yesterday, except work.

Sometimes I happen upon a blog - you know the drill: click, click, click, "Hey! How did I end up here?"

But something on that blog catches my eye - so I read and read and read and read.

And then I notice something.

The blog is good. The pictures are good. The "voice" is good. The blogger has been around for a while.

But there are no commenters. I mean - one or two, here or there. But not as many as there could be. Perhaps they are all off reading Layla or Sherry or Shawni?! And while I also read those blogs [daily]; I love finding new blogs and people to stalk "meet."

I love the type of bloggers I am referring to. While I am sure they hope to have readers commenting on every post; they mostly blog for themselves. They continue to blog - even though they may not get a lot of traffic, they continue to share their thoughts, ideas and lives with the world wide web.

I know there are bloggers out there who don't necessary like strangers to post on their blogs. And I know there are bloggers who would kill (not literally, of course, people) to have just one kind person stop and appreciate something they've been working on. I tend to stop, regardless, and leave a kind word. Sometimes it's because I feel sorry for the fact that no one else did. And sometimes it's because I really am impressed!

Maybe there are readers out there that happen upon MY blog [remember? click, click, click] who wonder why I continue to post even though I don't have many "followers." I've been around the blog block a time or two (admittedly, this is the longest time I've kept up a blog) - and while I love comments (thanks Suz, Marcy, Tracy, and Lez - and sometimes Mom [but it's been awhile!!?!]) - I blog because I love sharing. More than that, I want to be able to print this blog out and turn it into a journal the kids can keep for a long time to come.

So, I know I will never be a professional blogger. And I know I blog about everything under the sun. But if I can entertain just one person - even if it's my own self - than I am happy.

If you are passing through - I'd love it if you left a comment. But if you choose not to - well, that's okay, too! Because, regardless, tomorrow - there will be always another post.

Don't you love finding new blogs?

I know I do! =)

Somehow I came across 320 Sycamore. Maybe you already read it?!

But I wanted to share this post.

I love the school house light.

I love her corner windows.

I love her drapes.

Off to read more!!

A Smorgasbord

Two Posts in One Day: Lucky you!

CHEAP DIM (did it myself) ART:

I got the spray paint out for this one...

I bought cheap picture frames from IKEA a while ago.

In colors like black & red.

So not my colors.

I found some pictures I liked, printed them out on plain paper.

Maybe someday I will update to photos... I have the jpeg's saved.

I saw this cute saying somewhere on the net - and loved it.

So I thought I'd make my own - using the colors in my kitchen.

I put it in my newly painted (albeit, not perfect) frame.

I ♥ it.

KITCHEN STUFF:

We did quite a bit in the kitchen this weekend.

THE VALANCES ARE HUNG!

Proof. Right there. And there. And there.

Love them!

And I just got done hanging my new "art."

Like I said, I printed the pics I wanted on regular paper. Nothing to it.

I had four of the black and red frames - I painted them cream and yellow/gold-ish.

I alternated them. Cream, Gold, Cream, Gold.

And I hung them with push-pins (the frames are super light) - that way,

I can change it easily enough if I feel the need later on!

RADIO CABINET #2:

We finally pulled the new radio cabinet out of the garage and got to work on it.

Yesterday.

Isn't she a beaut?!?

We actually removed the picture wall that I worked sooo hard on...

because the black/dark brown frames just didn't go.

So, I've relocated those pics throughout the house.

I moved my Goodwill find gold mirror in the picture wall's place.

I know there's a whole lot more to do there (for starters, I'd love a lamp!)

but at least we've got the ball rolling.

We were going to paint the new "buffet" cream... but it's in SUCH good shape,

we opted to leave it alone (for now).

Marcos took out all of the speaker stuff and insulation.

I polished her right up.

Ta-Da!!

We have plans to replace the old gold speaker material with a fabric -

something that compliments our dining room drapes. But that may be a while.

A FRONTAL VIEW:

And finally... for your viewing pleasure... an updated look at the front of mi casa.

What I haven't mentioned in a long while is that the whole front yard (pavers and sod) has been replaced; twice.

Hmph.

The grass is FINALLY growing back and looking halfway normal.

But that's not the real reason for the pic.

Look at my new wrought iron "shutters" on the front window.

I love them!

A lot.

I felt that window was just too plain before.

I think it looks nice now (despite the fact that everything needs to be wiped down and swept on the front porch. sorry about that!)

Something else new: In front of my columns, we replaced the dead/zombie/not really there hibiscus bushes and replaced them with little palms.

Love them, too!

That, my friends, is my weekend update. Off to do Sunday night things so that I can be ready for tomorrow morning to do Monday morning things (i.e. work). Boo.

Later alligator.

Ganas

I wanted to take some time today to talk a little about my older brother, whom I introduced you to here. 

I don't think I ever told that you some people think he's just a regular ol' Joe... Looks normal enough, doesn't he?

Jess likes to play the guitar. As a teen, he was crazy about comic books and Dungeons & Dragons.

He had some wonderful friends: Chris, Kerry, Sean, - I could go on. They were thick as thieves for years.

He was into the Drill Team and ROTC.

He was a pain in my side; macho-man always telling his little sister what to do.

Now, he has an almost 16-year old daughter, Abby, that is the LOVE of his life.

He's got a wonderful family: his girlfriend Catina and her two kids.

He lives in North Carolina. He's a Paramedic.

We never see enough of him, but that's because of his job.

Besides being a paramedic, Jess has been in the Army for 18 years (this summer marks his anniversary). He enlisted in June 1993 - the same month and year my dad retired from the same branch of service.

Jesse has been trained by the best, to be the best. He has ganas. 

As a medic in the Army - he's probably seen it all.

(No dummies were harmed during the making of this blog post.)

It's fake.

A training exercise.

That's probably ketchup.

What's NOT FAKE is Jesse's will to succeed. To be the best. To help protect our country.

You may think this post is a little off base. I mean... its not Veteran's Day, or Memorial Day,

or the 4th of July.

Nope... not any of those days. That's usually when we do most of our conscience remembering, right?

Eh, it happens.

Today is Day 1 of 365 that Jesse is gone.

Back to Iraq for his fourth tour.

FOURTH.

(he's had 5 total tours, none of them rock 'n roll ones, though.)

This one, without a doubt, is the hardest. Jess is in a great place in his life. A great career. A loving (AND STRONG) woman as his partner. He just earned custody of his daughter (his ex-wife gave him a true gift). He has two other great kids in the house (L & K). He has a silly puppy named Mac.  

He has so much to live for and to be happy about.

But for the next year, he is going to do what he does best. He's going to stay alert, watch over his 'boys' and help to save lives. If you know me in real life, you may have heard me joke about him and his job.

"He administers band-aids for a living."

Of course I have to say things like that. Someone needs to put him in his place.

But the truth is Sgt. Aniol is the epitome of an American soldier.

For the next year, he will put all else before him. Again.

You know, I'm proud of all that I have accomplished in my 34 years.

My family, my education, my career. 

But I've never, ever sacrificed as Jesse has. I've never been in 140* degree heat eating rations on a "cool" Iraqi evening. I've never held a fallen comrade. I've never heard constant gun fire. Or seen the aftermath of roadside bombers.

Nope. I am safe and sound. At home.

Because of soldiers like Jesse.

For the next 365 days - I will proudly display the following on my blog:

Just waiting for my knuckle-head of a big brother to come home.

And he will.

Ganas, remember?