Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Weekend Snapshots 5 | Easter Love


This weekend Snapshots is pretty much brought to you by Easter! Of course! Thanks to the Easter Holiday we had a long weekend and for me a two day work week being that we just made it back from our Spring Break trip! Don’t forget to join the other ladies at 3twentysix,, The Reinvention Of Jessica, Onixj and Independent Mami as they recap their weekends too! As always you never know what you’ll find on a Weekend Snapshot, maybe you’ll find a great idea for something you can do next weekend!

I’ll be honest with you, momma was not ready for a Easter weekend. We had mountains of clothes to wash from our trip, our fridge was on empty and I was in no way ready for Easter Baskets, plastic eggs and candy! SO of course come Friday I was decide to set off on yet another adventure! HA! We couldn’t help it, we have been meaning to take little bear to the Museum ofNatural Science for a very long time, so why not Friday?

If you haven’t been to the Museum in a while you definitely need to go they have made some pretty awesome changes throughout the Museum. Recently they upgraded the Planetarium to something called Digistar 5 System, although I’ve been explained what all that means in the technical sense, it means it looks even better than ever. Hailey was amazed, she swore we were moving the whole time, so if you try it out let me know if you think you are moving too. The whole experience is very trippy!!

We also saw the National Parks Adventure in 3D on the Wortham Giant Screen!! It was epic! What made it even more amazing was the fact that we just came back from hiking through the Red Woods and I swear there is a scene taken from the very spot we visited! Little Bear was like, “OMG we were just there!!” and yes she says OMG not Oh My God. What can I say, six year olds. drama. going on sixteen half the time.

Lastly we spent quite some time in the Cockrell ButterflyCenter, because girls :) Seriously if you are a girl or have a little girl or maybe you are just fascinated by butterflies you should go and you should go soon! It must be butterfly season because they are everywhere! They fly right up to you and land on you! Way cool! The girls would not leave until one would actually land on them. For some reason Little Bear was not having any luck, I thought we would never leave, then suddenly one landed on her hand and one landed on my hand at the same time! Then I was geeking out like a 6 year old!! I was like, “OMG!!! Babe come take a picture of us!!!!!


Of course we spent all of Saturday washing, grocery shopping and getting Little Bears stuff ready for Easter. This Easter Hailey was all about candy, toys and bunnies, can I have some, when can I have it and can I have more? We have raised Little Bear in Church all along and she herself will read her bible and uses her bible story app on her tablet all the time. She has a very good understanding when it comes to Jesus being the reason for the season but this weekend she was over taken by the Bunny hype. Before Sunday Service she was asking if they were going to have an Easter egg hunt for them and she was grumpy when we explained to her that was not going to happen. After church I had her tell me what she learned in her class and she gave me a full recap of the Resurrection of Jesus (full blow recap in little bear style too!) , later that day when we forgot pack something for our little Easter Party she shrugged, “Oh well, at least Jesus came back to life right?” LOL yes and we are very glad He did too! 

You talkin' to me? 





Cousins are the Best!! 





Hoppy Easter!! I hope you had a wonderful weekend!! I know we did :) 

Monday, March 14, 2016

Weekend Snapshots 4.5 | Segway




This Weekend Snapshots is brought to you by Segway Tours ofHouston and I’m Linked Up with 3twentysix and onixj. Really this is a mashup of this weekend and the weekend before! I’ll make it worth your while with an awesome giveaway at the end brought to us by Segway Tours of Houston!!

Weekend before started off mellow and chill – Sometimes you just have to take a break. It feels like we go go go all the time and suddenly you just come home and you want to stay home. I worked in my garage all day long Saturday before last finishing up a chalk paint project for my niece. I’ll write up a post on the whole chalk paint – tips and tricks. Chris and I were able to get away Sunday to meet up with the peeps from Segway Tours of Houston for an awesome Segway Tour! It was epic and awesome.

A few years back I was able to work with the founders of Segway Tour of Houston and I had access to jump on Segways all the time, lucky right? Over the years I’ve kept in touch and I am so proud of what an awesome company it’s become!! They have tours going out from the Wrotham Center every weekend and they have a “Certificate of Excellence” from TripAdvisor. Most recent they teamed up with Ben’s Beans in Downtown Houston offering even more tours daily. Segway Tours of Houston is revamping all of their social media and websites and Chris and I were happy to take some pictures of a tour in action of them. This was our first time on an actual tour and we were impressed, the tour guide was awesome, funny and informative with things about the Bayou City you never knew you never knew!!

This weekend was a busy one as we are prepping to go on a big trip that’ll take us from Seattle down to Sacramento- we fly out today!!

Saturday – We ran around shopping and getting our plans straight for our trip and I managed to take a break from all that to join the Houston Latina Bloggers at a Wellness and Beauty Networking event.  Events like this push me out of my comfort zone, but I will say we all need that don’t we? If we plan big and dream big we should surround ourselves with like-minded people and when we plan big and dream big we can’t keep doing what we’ve been doing we have to be ready to step out and do different to be different. I consider myself lucky to be a part of an awesome group of Latina Women who encourage and uplift one another. Teaching each other the strength and beauty comes in many different shapes and forms but ultimately the beauty I can give to someone comes first from finding that beauty from within myself.


Sunday we went to New Hope and afterward my one request for lunch was that we could sit outside and soak up the stellar Houston weather. We found ourselves at CafĂ© Adobe, the grub was good but the view was better! Lots of outtakes with ducks, turtles and even an alligator! Back at the home front we did more packing and some semi-napping before heading to my dad’s for more grub. Oh and a small tequila tasting he set up for us!! What can I say? That’s my family and they know how to bring it together real nice! 








HLB Girls lookin' fly







Friday, March 11, 2016

You & Me

Hello my blogger readers :) I am having one of those “moments”, one of those I have something muy importante going on and my first reaction is to close up, shut down. In January I made the decision to change the format of my blog from sharing my running and weight loss to sharing with you my daily crazy life. I promised to share more and I’ve tried to do just that. It’s easy when things are fun and exciting and we are just goofing around but I am out of my comfort zone when it comes to the dig deep and share with you what’s really going on. {insert deep breath here}

For Spring Break my little family is planning an awesome trip from Seattle down to Sacramento. We are so excited because we have never been to the west coast. We are more excited because the biggest part of our trip consist of a three day stop in Portland Oregon, to visit what is most likely where Chris will be going to school next fall.

The most asked question in the past week –“Uh-oh momma are you ready for that?”
My answer is indisputably “yes.” I get in return a blank stare or the “yeah right” look. Trust me I will more than likely want to fall apart the minute I leave Chris in Portland and I have no idea what it’s like to even be me without Chris. For those of you who don’t know my story, I’ve been a mom to Chris at this point in my life longer than anything else I have ever done or ever have been. I became a mommy at 17 years old, which be it crazy and not something I recommend, I wouldn’t change it for anything in the whole world. If offered to go back in time – knowing what I know now – I would do it all over again as long as it means that “Titan” “kiddo” “Gigantor” “Christian” would be my son and I would have the amazing experience and the honor of raising him.

Early on just like most parents I wanted to make sure that Chris would do more and be more than I ever have. I’ve told him to fly. Chris is a free spirit an old soul, if you know him you know. He has struggled with the fact that he was never quite sure about what he wanted to study or maybe he did, he just didn’t realize it was an option. I’ve told him to be himself, to do something that he loves and not be afraid if it didn’t fit the mold or if it didn't match what everyone else around him was doing at the time. He has a love for photography and not in a family portrait kind of way. He sees photography as a complex art form and he wants to pursue that passion. 

Around the time I meet my husband I fell in love with a song from the Dave Matthews Band “You & Me” and it was the song not just because it was a love a song but because I felt Jose and I believed this song truly before we had Hailey.  My husband was ready to join me and help me teach Chris to “fly” from the very beginning.

Am I ready for Chris to go to Portland this fall, yes I am, you see I’ve told my son to fly all his life and I can’t clip his wings now. What will I do while he is away? Well I guess God planned that out long ago because I have this crazy 6 year old spunky little girl and her flying lessons are daily. 













Thursday, March 3, 2016

Magnolia Market

The Silos
For the past few weeks I’ve planned on taking a small road trip to Waco, TX! Why? I’ll tell you why  -> Fixer Upper -> The Gaines Family  -> Magnolia Market ->  The Silos -> enough said! If you haven’t followed along with the show on HGTV then you’ve missed out, the couple is in season 3 of their show Fixer Upper and they have captured the heart of many (no really like thousands).

If you’re from around here some of the magic might be because they are so close you can practically touch them! For some it’s the goofy husband Chip, the wonderful ability Joanna has to stage and decorate a house, how family and faith focused they are or the combination of all of it together transforming old forgotten houses into amazing modern fresh homes.

Anyway I am a fan, I love it all. I am a geek and my husband encourages it so all is good. We made the drive to Waco to see what all the hype is about and trust me there is a lot of hype, you can tell by the traffic leading you to The Silos.  We got there around 12:30 and followed the crowd, we stood in line and anxiously waited for the chance to go into Magnolia Market! By the time we zigged and zagged our way closer to the entrance we realized maybe there was another way to go about doing this… by the time it was all said and done we had a much clearer idea about what we will do the next time we come visit.

So here is a list of tips and tricks that I picked up on.

Long line!! 
First here is the lay of the land, Magnolia Market at The Silos, consist of the market (of course), a huge artificial lawn for you to lay out and relax on. They have it stocked with footballs, Frisbees, hula-hoops, dodgeballs and even two sets of bean bag toss games for you to enjoy. The lawn sits across and is framed by The Silos, I am not sure what the long term plan is for The Silos hopefully something just as beautiful as everything else they have restored.  For now there is a stage being built in front of The Silos where the couple plans to have live music and entertainment for their visitors. Around the perimeter there are food trucks for you find something to snack on and about a dozen or so farm style tables for you to be able to sit down and enjoy your meal. Joanna loves to garden on her farm, here at The Silos she has a colorful garden of raised beds for you to stroll through, there will be a Garden Store opening soon. Last, but not least, soon to be opened will be a bakery at The Silos too! Needless to say you can easily make a whole day of visiting :)

The store gets crowded making it very tight to be able to move around. So get there early!! No, not really you can get there at noon and still have a very nice visit despite the long line.

Tip 1. Parking! Watch for signs, some parking is NOT for The Silos! We found it easiest to go behind The Silos where there is plenty of parking designed for The Silos. 

Tip 2. You don’t have to go into Magnolia Market right away, you can bypass the line for the Market and go to the lawn, food trucks and garden.  Wait for the line to die down and then make your way to the store.
Beautiful Garden 

Lots to Explore

Tip 3. Magnolia Market isn’t a place where you will find things you can’t find anywhere else.

People seemed surprised by this one so let me explain. The store is gorgeous, here you will find items handpicked by Joanna that fit her style (with lots more to come). She has some local vendors with their unique handcrafted items for sale and displayed but you will not find the unique treasures you see Joanna hunting for when she goes to the flea market. You will find those items, at the flea market (sorry!)

Tip 4. The second half of the store or the back of the store isn’t quite as tight and has that magical word everyone likes to hear… sales items.

Tip 5. Take the family, Hailey, Jose and I had a blast playing on the lawn. Hailey loved the toys and she tired herself out playing ball with us. She learned to throw a Frisbee and she showed off her hoopla-hooping skills.
                      

Tip 6. Waco, TX is getting what seems to be a face-lift and downtown is coming back to life. If you can stay the weekend I am sure you will find plenty to do there. Lots of local shopping and flea markets. Google what’s going on during the weekend you are planning on visiting, I am sure you will find plenty to do.

Garden Store Coming Soon

Lots of things in the works for The Gaines family and The Silos.

·        The MagnoliaStory – book to be released October 2016
·        Joanna’s very own line of Paint Colors – Spring 2016
·        Joanna’s very own rugs and pillows – Summer 2016
·        Magnolia Home – furniture line Spring/Summer 2016
·        Magnolia Flour – Bakery May 2016
·        Entertainment Stage @ The Silos - Spring 2016
·        Fixer Upper Season 4


Can you say WOW? Lots coming from this family, I could write a whole other post about how I feel when it comes to their success and their future. The one thing I’ll leave you with for now is this video and remember it’s not your timing its God’s timing. 


Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Weekend Snapshots 3 | Turning 37

Another great Weekend Snapshot! Ah! You would think that being 37 years old would keep a woman from being such a brat for her birthday, right? Wrong. I am the biggest brat when I comes to my birthday, and I am not really sure why that is! Yes I can give you the – duh! Because it’s me and I am amazing response but really I am just like you and yes I do think we are amazing.

When my husband and I started dating he told me he had never really celebrated his birthday in a big way, ahem. If you know us personally you may already be smiling a little. My husband’s birthday is a big deal around our house, as is my sons and my daughters. On birthdays we go big. Not to be dramatic but we just do, we always have, even as a single mom I would make sure Chris knew his birthday was a big deal. For his 19th birthday when I was sure he would do his own thing, with his own friends, Chris was like, “So what are WE doing for my birthday?” That’s my boy!

Here are a few things we did for my birthday and I might have a few things up my sleeve that I’ll have to fill you in later with.

First of all we went on day trip to Waco, TX because --> Fixer Upper --> The Gaines Family -->The Silos--> Magnolia Market --> enough said.

I will post more and some tips about our trip this week. Chip and Joanna have lots happening over in Waco and they are not finished yet!

After church on Sunday, my husband and I said we would not do anything time consuming because we spent the whole day out and about the day before. We still had laundry to do and the “getting ready for the work week” stuff we scramble around doing last minute. So nothing crazy just grab a bite to eat and head back home.

A trip to Galveston and a visit to the Pleasure Pier, some yummy grub and tons of rides later we went back home. HA! C’est la vie! I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world :)


37 and loving life! What can I say? I am blessed beyond measure! I can’t wait to see what this year has in store for me! 

Link in with the other ladies joining in the Weekend Snapshot fun! 3twentysix - Onixj - IndependantMami and The Reinvention of Jessica!! 
The Silos


Long line @ Magnolia Market


Group Selfie! 


Perfect day and hanging out on the lawn!


Bubba Gumps, Galveston, TX 


Little bear and Momma Bear ready to ride! 


Sun shine and sea breeze! 

New Heights! Little bear is finally tall enough to ride the rides and she made me get on this ride with her!! I was scared... Hailey stated she was born to ride this ride. Oh boy! I hope she does not hit another growth spurt soon, I don't think I'm ready for it!!