Volunteer Days @ Children's Medical

I don't know if I've mentioned before, but for the last few months I've devoted three hours a week to the kids at Children's Medical Center.  I didn't quite expect to be affected the way I've been affected lately... but I really couldn't be more thankful for having the chance to make a difference in a little one's life.  Three hours may not seem like much to some but to those kids who are lonely, scared, who miss their parents out working to pay their hospital stay and even those babies that just want to be rocked to sleep each night.... I'm glad I could be there for them. 

Each week the scene changes and the kids come and go...but each week I go back looking forward to spending my time just being their friend.  From the play room setting..where you get to lose track of your own personal day...(and for them, being free of nurses, needles, yucky medicine and poking fingers)... to being able to sit with them in their room providing comforting arms after the nurses have left them with racing hearts and shivering bodies.. I leave the hospital each Monday feeling fullfilled and hopeful that whatever illness plagues the kids I've come across that day...is cured and never returns. 

Nothing can compare to seeing kids that have been cooped up in their hospital rooms all day light up at the sight of a wooden block dinosaur in the playroom...or the excitement in their eyes as they watch other kids play Cars on the Wii.  It seems silly and trival to let the negative happenings of your day affect you when little innocent children are affected daily by terrible, heartbreaking illnesses.  It seems unfair to most, but as you watch them...it's shockingly evident that not one of these kids lets their misfortune bring them down.  I know the day will come when I'll be saddened hearing of the loss of one of these sweet children...but I vow to never let that stop me from being there for them now...when I can...for as long as I can... to help them cope with whatever life throws their way.

Before & After Photos - Glenwood Court

After more than a few requests to see recent pictures of the house as it stands today...and after months and months and months of painting and sorting and doing and RE-doing things over the course of the last two years... I took a few minutes last night to take a few snaps of our digs.  Don't mind the random things lying about.... and note that things are STILL changing and moving and such.  (Oh and I realize I still haven't shown ya'll the master bedroom or master bath & den area...but yesterday we bought an inversion table which we reluctantly had to set up in our bedroom (having the most space)...and the den is a major work-in-progress...so stay tuned for those pictures in a few weeks) 

Living Area BEFORE:

Living Area AFTER:

Living/Stair Area BEFORE:

Living/Stair Area AFTER:

Bar/Kitchen BEFORE:

Bar/Kitchen AFTER:

Dining Area BEFORE:

Dining Area Wall AFTER:

Dining Area AFTER: (Different Angle)

Office/ Den Restroom BEFORE:

Office/Den Restroom AFTER:

Stairwell BEFORE:

Stairwell AFTER:

Guest Bathroom Upstairs BEFORE:

Guest Bathroom Upstairs AFTER:

(Notice the "before" picture framed on the counter :)

I did that everywhere to appreciate all the work we've done on the house...lol)

Guest Bedroom Upstairs BEFORE:

Guest Bedroom Upstairs AFTER:  (Different Angle)

Engagement Day Photo Video

Seeing how easy the first video was to create, I got a little nostalgic by going back to our engagement day and creating a special video to show how the day evolved...leading me to my ENGAGEMENT and the most beautiful ring a girl could ever want! :)  Take a look at how great it turned out! 

I have to thank our awesome wedding photographers Jimmages for introducing me to this pretty awesome website....Thanks to them we have an amazing "music video" like montage of our wedding day (which I'll share later)....BUT seeing how cool and seemingly user friendly the "video" process was... I followed the link to the original site and was surprised to find out that I could make my OWN unlimited, short 30 second clips for FREE!  Even the paid portion seems like a steal.  On my first run at a trial "movie", I used my first skydiving adventure to create this photo reel of my awesome day!  Check it out...then go create your own @ Animoto :)



Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Blog Crazy Days

I can’t believe how BLOG crazy I’ve gotten lately. I like to blame it on Chad for being gone...giving me ample time to peruse the internet while he’s at work. I don’t know. But for whatever reason, I’m starting to really enjoy blog reading! Due to my addiction…and all the insanely AWESOME DIY decorating blogs I’ve come across lately, I’ve caught the renovating bug AGAIN. I was always a lover of DIY projects and what not…but after about 8 months of constantly working on the house trying my best to NORMAL-ize the colors when I first bought it over two years ago, I suddenly had no desire to even THINK about doing anything else…let alone MORE Do It Yourself projects. All I cared about was saving enough money to HIRE someone to tackle the rest for me! Thankfully…albeit, two years later, I came to my senses and realized I could do a lot of the remaining things on my spare time and on a tight, masterful budget! Who knew?!

With that said, the last few weeks or so have been spent in an ever-evolving house…with ever-evolving house projects surrounding me. I start one task and realize how cool the next task would be. It started with FINALLY getting our perfectly HIDEOUS salmon pink, silver and black kitchen cabinets to a decent color… .  Those poor things have certainly been put through the ringer these last two years!  From testing out colors over the existing, to sanding the crap out of a portion of them to see how that would work...to then just giving up and calling it a day when we couldn't come to a consensus.  What a mess!  Finally, I took charge and decided on a color that I think really looks great, while still keeping some of the house's character.  After the kitchen cabinets were pretty much settled on...(minus some final touch ups here and there)….I then painted the fire place mantle, the fireplace surround (which I haven't decided if I like), put up artwork, changed out light fixtures in our guest bathroom, repurposed bi-fold doors into a partition screen…and.....wheww…I’m exhausted just thinking of all the possibilities left in the house to conquer. I’m happy with the progress so far…. and it’s certainly has kept me busy while Chad’s cooking up a storm at work, I just hope I don’t burn out again. :)

And just in case you needed a little refresher on how the house came when purchased.... (feel free to make yourself gag now to get it over with)

The living room. 

Pink walls, dark blue curtains, white fireplace with shiny gold fireplace surround. 

Living looking into the kitchen. 

Notice the awesome black diamond wood blocks on the cabinets in the background. 

Oh yes folks...it's true.  Salmon Pink, Black and Silver. 

Makes you teary eyed I'm sure.  :)

But just when you thought you couldn't beat it.  BAM! 

BLUE damask wallpaper with BLUE cabinets AND a BLUE toilet seat cover...

topped with shiny gold cabinet pulls.  WTF?! 

Where the hell do you even FIND blue toilet seats?!

Oh yeah and faux suede wall paper as an accent.  LOL! 

It's a good thing I have a great imagination to see what this houses' potential was! 

Can't beat a great deal.  :)

Guest bathroom upstairs sportin' the BLACK flower wallpaper! 

Thankfully the toilet seat and faucet fixture was easy to replace and the black cabinets weren't so bad. 

The view from upstairs down to the living area. 

Here we are again with the blue and pink...this time, in a lovely magenta tone.  (bleh!)

The guest bedroom upstairs. 

These people must have been on crack, there really is no other way to explain it. 

And because I'm sure that's all you can bear...I'll leave you with those...not showing you (YET) the LIME green master bedroom/master bath & HUNTER GREEN office/den.  I do plan on taking some recent "After Photos" cause god knows it looks a BAZILLION times better than this...but it'll have to wait, and you'll have to suffer with only these pictures to scare away the critters at night.  ;) 

Texas Rangers Vs. Oakland A's

At least once a year Chad and I make an attempt to head out to Arlington to catch up on our good old Texas Rangers.  This year we've been fortunate enough to make it out there twice.  The first time being on the 4th of July and this time to watch them play the Oakland A's with my brother.  :)  Thank you Cara and your future hubs for providing the great tickets, we had a great time...too bad the Rangers didn't.  (insert sad face here :(

Texas Rangers vs. The Oakland A's

August 28, 2010, 7:05pm

Four tickets:  Section 131, Row 39, Seats 9-12  :)

The walk up.. Isn't it PURDY?! :)

Directly to our right... Cowboys Stadium in all its glory. 

Catching my hubby making yet another funny face  :) 

I love my Goober-Head!

Awesome view from our AWESOME SEATS! :)

Awww.... So much love in the air! 

I think the Rangers were down and nearly out by this point...

So we decided to walk around... and caught the view from a different, equally awesome angle! 

Hey batter, batter, batter....

View of the stadium as we walked to our car parked out in BFE! :)

"Suerte" by Jason Mraz & Ximena Sarinana

I don't really know what made me look up this song again.. it's been a while since I've really heard it... but everytime I do, my heart swells up.  I don't think Chad and I could've picked a better song for our first dance at our wedding.  The mix of english and spanish...the words.. the meaning.. the fact that I just LOVE Jason Mraz.  It's a perfect fit and I'm so glad we found it in time for our wedding.  So here's to a beautiful song to commemorate a beautiful day, just over nine months ago. 

Roadtrip to San Antonio - Munchkin Time :)

It doesn't take much convincing to get me to go just about anywhere to see Addie.  After realizing that she wouldn't be coming on the already scheduled Maldonado trip to Dallas at the end of August, I jumped at the chance to see her...even if it meant driving five hours down to San Antonio to meet up with the family.  While my brother met up with his friends to sort out their fantasy football stuff, Christi, Addie and I headed to do some shopping for the day.  :)  But before we headed out... lunch! 



My...what BIG EYES you have!





Addie, wanting me to take a picture of her menu.. :)





Taking a rest after a long and SUCCESSFUL day of shopping!





Showing me her Dora "bakapak"  :)



Fox - Good Day; Shrimp and Grits Cooking Demo

Here's to the the making of a bonafide STAR-  Today was round two of Chad's morning appearances on the news!  On July 27th, it was for Good Morning Texas.... this time it was on Fox's Good Day morning show and he couldn't have been more poised, more collected, or more NATURAL on tv.  It was as if he'd been doing cooking demo's all his life.  :)  He's such a natural on camera!  Now I just have to keep trying to convince him that The Next Food Network Star is his next step.  ;) Wish Good Morning Texas had a link to the demo he did on their morning show last week.  Boo... guess we'll just have to write up a nasty email about THAT!  ;)  Til then, happy viewing! 

Meddlesome Moth - Media

As part of The Moth's Dinner club event last week, Jim White produced a great video about the evening and placed it on his Dinner Club website.  Check it out!



You can also read more on his website:  Dinner Club with Jim White