Project Runway: Season 5

I love Project Runway! LOVE IT! It blends creativity, catty reality TV star wannabes, Heidi Klum, sewing, and Make it Work Tim Gunn! Fabulous.

This year, however, I am not that impressed. I am actually really annoyed with one contestant and I want to see if anyone else is.

His name is Suede, that's right he has the name of a kind of fabric. What is worse is that he talks in the 3rd person. That drives me nuts. Why do people talk about themselves in the 3rd person? No one, in my opinion, is cool enough to have a narrator running around talking about them. And if you were, it would not be cool for the narrator to be you! He is a great designer, but the way he talks about "Suede" is super distracting. I found a video where he does it. It is at the very beginning of the video.

Watch What Happens.

http://video.bravotv.com/player/?id=280240

Let me know what you think of Suede!

Happy Birthday Logan!

Today Logan turns 2! I can not believe how fast time has flown by. I remember as a child wanting to speed up time, to get older faster. Now I spend most of my days pleading for someone to turn back the clocks, or just slow them down a bit. There are so many moments I wish I could repeat so I could savor every detail. The last 2 years are brimming with those lost or fuzzy moments. So, let me take a moment and jot down how I feel about my son in this moment, on his special day.

Logan, you are joy! I waited for so long for you. I knew that one day I would have a little boy, and we would name him Logan Paul. I felt you long before I held you. The day I knew I was pregnant I knew it was you! And then you arrived. July 25th. I remember going into labor late in the afternoon on the 24th, in Payless Shoes. I was racing to get Sierra's school shopping done. I had many conversations with you, asking you to just wait until I could get Sierra set for school. The moment we were done, you were on your way! I also remember hoping you would not be born on the 24th for fear of you being labeled the "pioneer day kid." You held off and were born in the morning on the 25th.

You were a beautiful baby. I thought you would look just like your dad, but you came looking just like me! That was surprising! Over time you have started to look more like your sister to be honest, but you are all dad on the inside. You are sweet, and snuggly. You love to snuggle up. Every night you hop into my lap, take your face in mine and give me a kiss. You then sit on my lap and go to sleep. It is your bedtime routine. I love it! You love your Sister and your Dad! You love to play with your "sissy!" You miss her when she is gone, and ask "where sierra go" until she walks back in the door! You love spending time with your Dad! Whether you are going "ow-side" with your Dad to hit "balls" (golf), or going for rides with your Dad in all the crazy cars he brings home! You love to be outside period! You love to ride trikes and you desperately want to ride your sister's scooter by yourself- you will with a few more inches! You love Barney, Cars, and Thomas the Train. You love watching the garbage trucks pick the trash up on the street. You are an electronic genius! You watch how we work something and you can do it yourself in a matter of moments (this is all Ostler and Coombs)! You love to climb into the cars, put the key in the ignition and pretend like you are driving! The truth of it is, you are all boy and I couldn't ask for anything more.

I love you son! You are an amazing gift that I don't feel I deserve. I love being your Mom! Have a happy, happy day!

Hello, Dolly!

We are dry!
Desperately Dry!

So dry that I have been chanting for days for a hurricane to hit the south part of Texas!

Not a big one, a little one...

Like a little girl named Dolly.

Things were looking good, she made a hard turn Northeast right before hitting landfall, making our chances of rain better.

(Sorry South Padre, I'll vacation there next summer!)

But, Dolly has disappointed me.
No rain, YET!
Fingers are still crossed!

BRING IT DOLLY!

My Brother!

I have to post a little blurb about my brother. He is 17 and available....

LADIES....

Just kidding.

No, really he is amazing.

Since my brother was in fifth grade he has been home schooled by my mom. My mom has always wondered if she made the right choice, this last month the results came in......

We always knew my brother was smart, oddly smart. For example, he would get it in his head at 2 1/2 that he wanted to know about whales. He would begin reading anything he could get his hands on, and watch any National Geographic movie on the subject. Within days he could point out any whale, tell you it's name, it's average length and weight, it's diet, where it lived, etc.

He has always been like this.

In May and June he took 3 AP tests. ( Government, Statistics, and Psychology.) He also took his ACT. My Mom and him got the results of all the tests this last week. He scored amazingly well on his ACT, and he passed ALL 3 AP tests. That makes him an AP Scholar. Only 33% make AP scholar a year!

It looks like my Mom was right in her decision! I can not tell you how proud I am of my Brother! I Love You Nate! I am so happy that I am your most brotherly sister. You are going to do great things! I can not wait to watch you grow into the Man you are! I LOVE YOU!

If you would like to read some of Nate's writings click on the link "Nathan" on the right. Great Stuff if you like Sci-Fi!

Come on, Everyone is Doing It!

We will see how this goes!

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Life Lesson Learned!

I had a couple of my friends over the other day for an impromptu crafting session. One of my friends was working on a dog bed for her daughter's pretend dog stuff-animal. While working on how to sew the cover for the dog bed, she was worrying about how to sew the bed so that it would look the way she wanted it to look. My other friend stepped in and began to help her. While sitting there helping friend # 1 it became obvious that friend #2 was starting to feel pressure to give her the right information- the information that would make it perfect. Friend #1 than looked up at friend # 2, saw that she was beginning to stress, and said very sweetly but profoundly, "don't worry about it, it's just a dog bed!" We all looked at each other and started to laugh.

Thinking about that moment later that evening I began to think how often in life I personally stress over "the little things". Things that in the end won't matter at all! I realized that my friend had given me great advice that day. When I am stressing over little, perhaps unimportant things, that it is important to look up and realize- "it's just a dog bed!"

Kit is Here!

Sierra went down to Houston for a week to visit my parents. While there Sierra and my Mom went to see the American Girl: Kit Kittredge movie. They both feel in love with the movie. They learned many lessons from the movie, and discussed them outside the theater while sitting next to a beautiful fountain. Here are some of the lessons learned:

Don't judge people
It is good to be kind to people
Don't let it beat you
Don't get frustrated when things get you down.

My Mom and Sierra decided that the perfect thing to do, to remember the wonderful week they had together, and the amazing life lessons learned was to purchase a Kit Kittredge doll for Sierra. If you know my Mom this is perfectly logical reasoning. I love my Mom! Sierra has been wanting an American Girl doll for over 6 months now. I love that my Mom can come up with a perfectly logical explanation to spoil her rotten. Even better, it is not something that I can argue against, or talk the two of them out of! My Mom would have it no other way!Honestly though, the greatest gift is that the two of them truly enjoy spending time together. I love that!

So, this post is more for my Mom to see Sierra with her doll than anything else. That and Sierra really felt that the addition of Kit to our family was "blog material" as she called it! Again, if you can find an argument for that, and can stand to see disappointment on the face below, please let me know!

Sierra and her new baby!

I asked Sierra if we really needed this picture and the next and she replied,"yes because Kit is a really amazing doll." There you have it! Enjoy the really amazing doll pics. She's 8, what else can I say!

and Logan enjoyed a cracker!

KA-CHOW!

I know that in the past I told stories of the cute shows my son watched. How he would sit and watch Barney and Teletubbies for a few minutes. Logan loved them, but half way through he would get up and wander off. It never extended beyond the living room either. We would see something Barney or Teletubbies in a store and he wanted nothing to do with them!

This has all changed with KA-CHOW. (Logan's name for "Cars" the movie.) Logan loves "Cars." He wants to watch it all the time. He will sit and watch half the movie before I hear one peep from him! He is becoming obsessed!

Evidence Please:

He can not get enough of Lightning McQueen! Anywhere we see him, which is EVERYWHERE, he smiles and has to get down and run over.

He has a decent size collection of cars from the movie! (He's not even 2!)

He has a T-Shirt that has "Cars" on it and it speaks. That's right it makes sounds. He wore it for 2 days straight. I finally had to let him run around the house in a diaper so I could wash it!

He found fleece "Cars" fabric at Hobby Lobby, it was on a great sale so I bought it, and we made a blanket out of it! He loves to spread it out on the floor and lay on KA-CHOW! Why is this significant? Because my son hates blankets. I have never seen a child with such an aversion to things soft and fluffy! He grunts and yells if you put a blanket any where near him. He won't even let you cover a pinkie toe. But, now stick KA-Chow on it and he wants a blanket!

As my hubby would say:

Are you Serious? Are you Kidding Me?

None of this surprises me though! I must say that his love of cars comes to him honestly. With a dad in the car business it is no surprise to me that he adores this movie! He is his father's shadow, and for now that is exactly where I want him to be!

Sierra's Funny Phrases

Last Night as we were playing, Sierra said these two hilarious ( in my opinion) sentences:

While building a tower of pillows with her brother she stops and shouts:

"Behold, the Tower of Akmanrob" as opposed to Akmanra the Egyptian Pharaoh from the movie " Night at the Museum".

While speaking in a heavy and completely inaccurate English Accent:

"I am speaking British not English."

How I Love my Girl!

Houston Children's Museum

While visiting family in Houston this last week, we were able to go to the Houston Children's Museum! Logan and Sierra loved the museum (as always) and they loved spending time with their cousin Bailey, Aunt Erin, and of course "GIGI"! Here are some of the highlights!Sierra and Logan have a future in broadcast journalism!

( Logan needs to work at looking at the camera)

Face Painting!

Ms. Bailey and Mr. Logan joy riding!

Who gave these two keys?

Pumping gas- it take intense concentration!

On the way home!

Way to much fun was had by all!

Our Crazy Week

I haven't posted for a while because we have been super busy! I love it! I thrive in crazy busy-ness!

My parents arrived last Thursday to speak at my ward's Enrichment Night. They were doing a "Relationship Workshop" and they were amazing as always. That may seem like an extremely prejudicial opinion- and it is. However, there were at lot of other ladies who agree with that statement so it wasn't just me.

Thursday night was also the arrival of the newest member of our family, Mr. Kidney Stone! Paul spent Thursday night in the Emergency Room where they ran blood tests, urine tests, ultra sounds, and CT scans for 5 hours. Short of a gynecological exam, I think they ran every test they could think of! We were very worried that it could have been an appendix issue, or even a gallstone, so we took a kidney stone with great relief. The ER doctors and nurses were very good and kind. We are very grateful to all of them. Paul passed Mr. Kidney Stone on Saturday and is doing great! ( I asked Paul about posting this before I did and he is fine with people knowing!)

Saturday we ran the Keep Austin Weird 5K. It was weird fun, and crazy! It was perfect. We had a blast. Sierra ran too and did a fabulous job of keeping up and pushing us to keep going. It was a 3.2 mile loop, so you could turn around at any time. We finally made Sierra turn around just shy of the half-way mark. She ran/walked at least 2.5 miles. She would have done the whole thing if we would have let her. Sierra is so much like me it is sometimes scary. I love that girl!

My parents stayed until Monday, to celebrate my birthday with me! It was an amazing day! I was spoiled as always by my husband, kids and parents. My parents and my husband have always made birthday's special, and this was no exception! It was a magical day! We had a blast. The birthday celebrations just keep coming, today I went with Gina, Stacey and Jamie ( Gina's Sister), Anna and all fetuses to Chuy's! It was our traditional "Birthday Lunch" as we like to call them. It was a blast! I love them so much!

Monday also marked the day that my parents left with Sierra in tow. She was very excited and has been looking forward to this day for 3 months. I will be driving to Houston to pick her up on Saturday, but I will stay there until the following Wednesday!

Well, there you go, a summary of the weeks events. We hope that you are all well and safe! Have a festive 4th!