Neighborly Love…

When we bought our house, we inevitably fell in house love. I knew we loved this house when we saw it on paper I remember clearly the day I was reviewing the floor plans for this subdivision, Jose and I sat on the bed in my bedroom and we studied the folder the sales lady had given us, that night I saw this floor plan and knew that this was a house we could love.

Just a few weeks after we moved here on Mothers Day 2008, Hubby and my brother were running around on the scooters with my son. The moms were chit-chatting in the front yard and for some crazy reason I was taking a nap (probably resting from have to much moms for the day). Suddenly my mom flew into my room yelling about guns outside. By the time I got outside the police were there and whatever had triggered our neighbors to pull out their guns was over and guns put away. (yes, two different neighbors had pulled out their guns on each other!). At that point I thought what did we move into?

Tonight as I settle down to write this blog, some three years later, I can say that we are very blessed to be here in so many more ways than one. Tonight we had dinner with our neighbors from a few houses down, there we sat around on the floor or on the couch with our feet up feeling like old friends, we ate, we laughed and we shared some drinks. Our children ran amuck all over and I couldn’t help but feeling like this is our cul-de-sac. The place where pretty much each of the familes that live on this small block know one another and a good bunch of us have shared dinner together or hung out with each other, becoming more than just a neighbor, but a friend.

In fact my neighbor (Robert, one of the gun slingers) has become my pal, being that we both are always watering our grass and trying to figure out one thing or another about our yard. He has a yard that puts mind to shame daily but he humors me making me feel like they are of the same greatness, sadly the only part of my yard that looks as good as his and is a small patch about six feet long and one foot wide that runs right along side of his. Funny thing, but now more than ever I feel safer living next to him and his arsenal.

On the other side of our house we have Karissa and Dave-o, and can I say we hit the jackpot with them! Ha! They have become very good friends of ours, I don’t think I can put into words how much our friendship has grown. Dave-o is always there when we need him (and we are here if he needs us too but he never seams to!), put up the fence when that freaky mini-tornado tore it up- no problem! When we installed the attic door, easy-peasy for him, when we need a cold beer- he always has them, and better than anything else when we need a good laugh Dave-o never fails! Karissa and I have become great friends and she and Hailey good gal pals! She even speaks Hailey, and that’s not always easy. She endlessly is there to talk or hang out or better yet goooooo shopping!! Neither of us can wait till we are back at work so we can do more of the later.

Amy and Anna live a few houses down and they have a little munchkin named Andy that is only two weeks younger than Hailey. Since the girls were born we have literally spent many a days sitting on the living room floors of our homes hanging out watching the girls play. Tonight they asked us and another family from our block to join them for dinner so that we could welcome Amy’s mom into town. As we left their house and I hugged her mom, I suddenly felt uber-lucky to be a part of there lives and super blessed to be here on this little cul-de-sac.

A little bit about me on the road...

We are on our second road trip in less than a week, literally the suitcase was still sitting in the foyer waiting for me to drag it in the closet. I wasn’t feelin’ this trip when my hubbs first brought it up, now just sitting here relaxing here as the passenger seat driver, I’m feelin’ this trip very much. I just happen to love road trips, so many memories flood back to me every time. My road trip and mini vacation to Austin last week (Austin will always be one of my favorite road trips), my trip some 15 years ago to Denver, my trip to Angel Fire New Mexico (good times ladies good times!), Destin Florida, and of course my absolute favorite of all time Maui Hawaii (haha no I didn’t drive there duh! But my hubby and I spent 8 hours one the road there exploring)!!


Sometimes the terrain is flat and boring and sometimes it’s curvy and winding, either way I’m in love! I love exploring with my eyes what lies beyond the paved road. I’m one of those sappy fools who sits there wondering who lives in the dilapidated house, and if they haven’t lived there for years what was it like when they did? What did the house look like 20-30 years ago? What did they possibly do way out here for fun? Even more so who lives one that massive 20 acre ranch? And what do they do way out here?

I still get excited like a little kid every time we pass a bridge with a sign creek or river! I’m sitting up and trying my best to look over the side ooooooh water! The 360 bridge in Austin or the swamps in Louisiana, the trip to Destin lovely with the coast along side! Yup any way you look at it me likie the road…

The original plan was to fly here, in a plane from the company my hubbs works for, because that’s why we’re here – he is working – blah. In the end we decided to drive it and now here we are cursing in the big blue instead. Yes the plane would have been uber-cool especially for the kids but I secretly love the road trip. This trip was very unplanned and if you know me, you know that I like to plan. I hate not having a clue of where we are going and what we are going to do when we get there…at some point this morning I threw caution to the wind packed light and said we’ll figure it out when we get there! Wish us luck after all if all else fails we have the River Walk to go check out… again!

I am Super Cool!

For the past few months I've felt very un-super cool at the gym (Hello? Everywhere else I rock!). Six months ago I started going to the gym and let me tell you I normally don't like the gym very much but as life has it I am getting older and my health is feeling it. So I decided that as long as I was going to be a stay at home mom I should and could do something good. So began my journey, I started going working on this machine or that one and little by little started feeling like - ok I got this. Little did I know that I in fact did not have it at all! Soon I realized that the real craze of the gym lied behind the glass walls that held the "classes". I'd stand there and watch these women follow the instructor and move in unison and shake their bootay, and I was like I wanna do that! Especially the Zumba class!! "That’s totally me" I thought, I can do that. Uh, no I could not.

Turns out that I was very very out of shape, and I'm very uncoordinated. Funny at da club, waaayyy back in the day after a couple I could totally do that? Couldn't I? Let’s not go back there.

In these classes there are rows and in these rows there are women and they are there by rank (as it turns out) the front row, the kick butt best of the best. In the back row, me. Suddenly I had a very nostalgic feeling of being in middle school again and I wasn't cool. Nope not even close the cool ladies, they can move, I mean they can really move (they can drop it low and spin it around and no one has to help them back up??) and they do so effortlessly. They are also a size 5 or smaller, so trust me when I tell you I was way off.

Thankfully I’ve improved, no more back row for me. (See ya! Didn’t wanna be ya!) Except for the truth that I was there before so I know what it feels like. At first I’ll be honest I looked on at the front row and wished I was one of them, not too much of a bad thing only because it’s made me try harder and to push my self more and more (Yay! 30lbs gone!). Then I began to realize what it really was, the front row gals (and a few others hand picked) stand around before class chatting away, laughing and what not and most of the rest of the class stands around quietly smiling politely….hum. I noticed that there were ladies that sort of wanted to talk to someone. A few weeks ago I simply started talking to them, I’d smile at them, meet their children and chat whenever I got the chance…turns out alot of gals where looking for someone to talk to.


Today I realized that I’m much better at being myself. I was running late today and this is a major no-no if you want to make it to a class. All kinds of things happen when you’re late, first the nursery can fill up, second class starts without you or third and worst of all the class fills up… wah wah wah. So there I was singing to my self “Go speed racer Go!” I checked in Hailey and as I came up to the glass wall realized that it was almost full! Dreadful. There was a space right in front of the instructor, and no one wants that spot, especially if you don’t want to be called out in front of everyone for not being able to keep up!! Then a little ray of sunshine called me over and pointed to a space next to her. I grabbed my mat and bee lined over there. She was like- “we’ll make room for you!”. A few minuets later another friend came in and asked if she could squeeze in and then we stood around chatting and laughing. After two torturous classes I figured that we are not so bad for third-rowers :)

Blog Me Somethin'

OK, so here is my third attempt at blogging. I have actually started a blog before but never let anyone read it or know about its existence. I'm constantly thinking of things I could blog about some very random and some with a little umff to them... either way I think that it's time I try this and hopefully you'll join me. I have some very brave friends out there who enjoy this blog thing and I keep thinking to my self "I wanna do it too!" but for the most part I get scared. So please don't get upset if you don't agree with some of the off the cuff things I might post on here...

1. Although I used to believe that I could never be wrong (because of my all knowing powers) - I've found out that I in fact can be very wrong sometimes.
2. Everyone has their own point of view and we may not see eye to eye (ever.)
3. I am very sorry if I offend you (because I pretty much might do that at some point and time).

Okay that said I'm really really gonna try to keep up with this blog. So far I can say I'm sharing this one and that is already a step ahead from any other blog I've tried to do, Yay! Me!