Being iced in is .... FABULOUS!!!

Yesterday my office was closed because of snow/sleet/ice in our area. It's in the company policy manual to follow McKinney ISD weather closures ... but a few weeks ago when McKinney ISD was closed for snow, the company president decided to have everyone come in at 10am. So, policy shmolicy!

Yesterday we got word around 6am that we'd be closed for the day. I was so excited. Except for the fact that I had a proposal due. It's pretty strange that the whole ISD was closed, and yet the purchasing department stays open. I suppose it keeps the schedule on track, but still. So I braved the ice to head up to the office around 10am, and made it there in 30 minutes. Almost got in a wreck due to hills and lots of ice on the roads, thankfully my slow driving on ice came in handy. My hands were sore from gripping the steering wheel so tight!

I waited about 20 minutes for the file I was waiting on to be emailed to me, but once I got it, it took only 10 minutes to put the books together and tape up the box. I headed downstairs to give it to my co-worker who was going to drive 30 miles to deliver. I was SO thankful not to have to brave that many roads and cars. I headed home around 11:15am and the roads were already worse than just an hour before. It was a good rest of the day with pizza for lunch and dinner, Jerry Maguire, an hour nap, several 30 Rock episodes, and Ondine.

I was waiting to hear what the verdict would be for today since McKinney ISD reported school would be closed all day. A little after 8pm we got an email stating the office would open at noon unless the roads were deemed too dangerous to drive on .... so this morning at 10:15 I got a call from my boss that the office would remain closed for the rest of the day. YAY!!! I was so excited.

Today I was able to be much more productive ...here are some of the things I did:

• made a dozen each, Fiber One Banana Nut muffins, and Fiber One Blueberry muffins

• P90x Arms & Shoulders workout with Jason
• 4 loads of laundry
• made a delicious lunch of Garlic Curry Chicken with avocado and steamed broccoli
• made a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough - 2 dozen cookies / 4 dozen balls of cookie dough to be saved for a rainy/snow day

• started our taxes - only waiting on our tax form from Bank of America to finish
• gathered all of my stuff to give away to a family in need

McKinney ISD is closed all day tomorrow, too - just waiting on the official word as to what our office plans to do. I'm hoping for AT LEAST a noon start time - but would absolutely LOVE the whole day off. I've got some fun projects I could work on... :)

Gateway Drug

I have discovered what my "Gateway Drug" is in terms of losing weight. Not only do I want to eat the whole 33.5oz carton in one sitting, I also want to eat brownies, cookies, cake, Cheetos, and anything really bad for me after consuming these yummy treats. I cannot have these in my house!! Today I ate the last little baggie-full for snack, and we are not buying these again for a very long time!

 

The least talked about room in our house.

So it's been a while since I've blogged about our renovation progress. Mostly because we've been too lazy to do any more. But now that we've owned this house for almost a year, it was definitely time to get moving on the least talked about room in our house.

The laundry room.

You see, when we bought the house, the room was a Texas Longhorns color (ugly) with just one long hanging rod and shelf directly opposite the door to that room.

 We had to fix some pipes in the wall.

But you can see the interestingly orange walls...

 Here you can see that we painted the walls a nice lavender color.

 You can also see our nifty storage solution for the past 11 months living in this house...

SOMETHING HAD TO CHANGE!!!!

Enter HOME DEPOT.

Holy productive Saturday, Batman!!

We bought some wall cabinets to install above the washer/dryer for storage. It took us hardly any time at all to get two coats of paint on these babies. Of course, Stella ran across one of the cabinet doors that had just been painted, and we had white paw prints trickling down the tiled hallway - Jason wiped them up. He wasn't happy with Stella for messing up our smooth operation, but I, however, thought it was hysterical. Because it was.

 Here is Jason hard at work building my cabinets! He's like my very own "Tim the Toolman Taylor."

Except he actually knows what the heck he's doing.

 First cabinet is in! I realize this picture has a weird perspective and angle. You have to realize that this room is TINY, so there's really no way to get a good photo of what's going on in there...

 They're all up!! Does it look bigger in there with the cabinets to anyone but me?? I think it just adds so much more usefulness to the room; it gives it a purpose and therefore makes it seem much bigger.

 DONE (for the day, at least) - look at the pretty floor! It's so beautiful - but it's been hidden so long behind the boxes of storage that I almost forgot what it looked like.

 All of my stuff fit in the cabinets!! This seriously makes my heart happy.

As you can see, I was trying out paint colors for that wall - it's a dark purple-ish/mocha color. But I think it will make the room look too small. What do you think? 

Today is the day we are going to go buy some almost floor to ceiling cabinets for the wall with the trashcan and vacuum. We've got a plan to install a hanging rod with shelving below and above it.

Now, I'm off to get ready for church and get excited about another productive day. :)

Smith Family Christmas / New Year's Holidays

We had an amazing Christmas 2010 in Florida - and sorry there were no photos ... my camera had to get fixed by the Geek Squad and we didn't get it back until after we got back from Florida. We had a wonderful time hanging out with Jason's family and celebrating "Smith" style! We were able to spend some good time hanging out and shopping with his parents (they bought a new flat screen TV!) the day after Christmas. Jason got to hang out with his brothers quite a bit and they were able to work out at the gym together, too. It's nice that he's able to just hang out with them in their element - doing normal daily stuff. Jason's sweet Grandma taught me how to make her famous Chicken 'n' Dumplins! It was a wonderful bonding experience and fun to get to know her a little better. I always love being in the kitchen - love to cook!

This year for New Year's Day we celebrated with my family at their house. The guys watched football while me and my mom cooked and had fun talking in the kitchen. It was a fun day hanging out with my family!

Jason's excited to watch some football on my parents HD big screen!

Check out the healthy snacks!

"Woman, can't you see I'm watching football??"

So happy to still be on VACATION!!!

Step One: Boil a whole chicken for 45 minutes in broth with onion and celery.

This smelled SO GOOD.

So excited to practice making the dumplings for a kind audience! :)

Squash (LOVE), chicken broth for dumplings, and potatoes ready to boil.

BIG TIP: Use plastic gloves!!! Why didn't I think of this? Grandma knows best.

Jason was so excited that I was making his favorite childhood meal that reminds him of home.

 

Mom making the delicious marinade for the Honey Glazed Ham. YUM-O!

So this was such a great start to 2011! The vacation away from work was AMAZING and I came back to my job with a renewed spirit and energized! I'm not going to lie, though, I'm counting down the days until my next vacation - 72 days!

Ford Edge 2008

So several months ago we traded in Jason's truck and bought a 2008 Ford Edge. It was a weird day because we went to the car dealership with no intention to buy that day. We just wanted to see what our options were for the amount of money we had saved plus the amount we thought we could get for Jason's truck. We found a black 2008 Ford Edge with 30,000 miles on it and we were able to trade in Jason's truck and write a check to Bob Tomes Ford and walk away sole owners of our very cool new car. We had been saving for a while and so it was awesome to be able to stay debt free AND get a more "family friendly" car with 4 doors!

I get to drive the Edge, and Jason gets my Civic. He drives further to work every day so he got the car with the best gas mileage. I'M happy - I love new cars!!

And here's the commercial that got us interested in the Edge in the first place.

Immeasurably more...

This is what I saw when I opened my garage to leave for work yesterday morning. Isn't it beautiful?? This week has stayed cold enough that there is still snow on the ground 3-4 days after our big snow day on Sunday. The photo reminds me of one of those little mountain towns where it snows all the time and everyone's always bundled up. Makes me want to curl up by the fire with a good book and just relax. I'm thankful that I live in Texas where we have the extreme heat and the extreme cold and everything in between. I love bundling up - and I love wearing flip flops.

I'm also thankful for beautiful sunrises like this that remind me that God is all that I need. Even when work seems like too much to handle, and I'm tired and worn out from the day. I can rest in the knowledge of His grace and mercy in my life, and know that He has a plan for me. More perfect than I could ask for or imagine.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.  ~Ephesians 3: 20-21

Faith At Home

Too often people rely on church to maintain their relationship with their Heavenly Father. We grab our Bible off the shelf on Sunday morning, bring it to ABF and "Big Church" to look up verses and follow along with the sermon, only to put it right back on that shelf for it to sit untouched until the following Sunday. Too often we cry out to God in worship and pray to Him and experience a closeness that is missing in our lives, and continue to reserve only Sundays for that kind of relationship. Too often parents rely on Sunday School teachers to teach their children about God. This is not the way God intended the Christian life to be lived.

Sunday, our pastor introduced us to a new initiative called "Faith at Home." It starts with the family unit, by praying and reading the Bible together, talking about the Lord in everyday situations, with weekly church meetings as a reinforcement to what is already going on at home. Our pastor and church staff is challenging each member to make their walk with the Lord a priority in this new year and change the perception of "church."

Jason and I have a checklist with some action items to help guide us in this challenge:

• Have a personal devotion with prayer and Bible reading at least 5 times/week.
• Pray with each other at least twice weekly.
• Read through the book Love and Respect together.

We have been to a Love and Respect marriage conference, but haven't actually read through the book and I imagine it will be sort of a refresher to what we already know. If you and your spouse have ever wanted to go to a marriage conference, but just don't know which one - I highly recommend Love and Respect. The concepts are very basic and easy to understand and apply. You will leave the conference knowing your spouse and where they are coming from so much more.

I'm excited to see where this Faith at Home journey takes us - it's coming at a great time for me and Jason as I'm sure our family will grow in the near future. We definitely want to have a strong Christian base to our family before we have children and I think this is a great way to get started.

SNOW~!!~!!

It snowed in McKinney yesterday and it was SO COOL! I have a late start this morning for work (although technically it should be a full day off ... but policy shmolicy!), so I figured I'd share the photos of the pretty snow.

 This was on our way to McAllister's for lunch - only been snowing for a couple of hours...

 I love taking photos of tables in the snow - show's you how many inches you've gotten.
Looks like 3-4 at this point!

 Jason is the best snowman maker EVER! He's going to be such a great dad someday. :)

Henry (our snowman) is looking pretty good this morning so far!

Happy Winter, everyone! Stay warm!!

Kylee Grace Smith, cutest niece I'VE ever had! :)

So ... I'm officially an AUNT!!! I couldn't be more thrilled. She was born at 8:36pm (EST) January 6, 2011, weighing 7lbs 12oz and 21.5in long. Here's a picture of the Smith family's new princess:

Isn't she PRECIOUS?! I cannot wait to kiss those sweet cheeks!!

So sweet. :)

This is the text I got from Justin (proud dad) at 3:33pm (EST): "In room. Started potoson. Contractions getting intense. No drugs yet. Court is a soldier." What an awesome hubby! Those are proud words!!

Congrats, Justin and Courtney on your little bundle of joy. Can't wait to meet her and watch her grow up!

December, already?!

I absolutely cannot believe it is December already. Am I the only one who thinks this year has gone by insanely fast?

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Liberty, TX. First time having them host the holiday and they did a fantastic job. The food was amazing and the atmosphere was calm and relaxed. They set up tables in their garage and we ate outside, which was a nice surprise. The boys had a fun jam session at the school my uncle teaches at - he's got some really great recording equipment that he wanted to try out. Dad and Jason loved it.

 

Jason and I went to my company's Christmas party this past Saturday night. It was a fun time and the food was great. I got a Christmas bonus equal to one week's pay - so I'm excited to decide what I want to spend it on! Definitely helps me wake up every morning to head into the office. ;)

Then we made a Thanksgiving #2 meal with our friends, the Schobey's yesterday. The food was delicious and the company was awesome. The boys played Xbox and the girls watched Felicity (we're almost done with Season 2). It was a fun relaxing day and a great end to the weekend.

Last weekend Jason and I finished all our Christmas shopping, so we'll work on wrapping all our gifts this week. We're getting excited because we'll be in Florida for Christmas this year! It will be fun to spend several days with Jason's family and enjoy just relaxing with them. My sister-in-law, Courtney is due with her very first sweet baby girl January 7, so my mother-in-law and I are hoping for an early baby so we can be there to share in the excitement and fun! I had so much fun buying cute little clothes for Miss Kylee Grace - can't wait to meet my sweet little niece!

 Justin and Courtney in September 2010

Courtney and the excited Grandma's-to-be at her baby shower in November 2010

So if Courtney doesn't have Kylee while we're visiting, we'll be scheduling a trip to Florida sometime next year to meet and love on our very first niece.

The day after Thanksgiving I found out my best friend is engaged and getting married in April 2011. I am her MOH and am SO excited to help her celebrate the most exciting day of her life, thus far. We have been friends for over 10 years. Wow, that makes me feel old!

Lots of vacations coming up for the Smiths in 2011, and lots of celebrations and milestones for our friends and family.