7.27.2010

Blah and 1/2.

Grrr. I don't feel good. I feel lazy. I don't want to do anything... rar...

I do have a couple of small projects to work on! Gunna work on those tonight.

tired!

blah!

ready for bed...

it's only 8:20 in the evening.

7.25.2010

Fun weekend!

Ok, so I have had 4 of the best days so far this year. It's just been a great 4 days. 2 great days at work! 1 of which was my friend Marissa's birthday. She's been excited about turning 30 for a long time, and I turned 27 on the 10th - which I have known since I was like 15 that 27 is the "perfect age". It's going to be a good year! lol!
Anyway, Saturday, we went to Conway to visit Kandi and Joey and the kids. We had a lot of fun, started off at Kandi's mom's house. We got to hang out with her for a little bit, and I got to show off the stuff I'm working on for Jamie's shower - I got very good reviews. :) hehe!

Then, we went back to Kandi's house and hung out with her and the kids all day! It was so much fun!! I even did a photo shoot with the kids. Check these out!

Jason
Jason 8 years old


Kayla 6 years old



Maddy 4 years old (Almost 5)


Maddy and Jason

Maddy & Kayla

While the lighting wasn't great because of the time of day I was taking these, I think I have a couple of FANTASTIC pics!! hehe! I love taking photos. These kids are so much fun to take pics of too!

I can't wait to steal Cathy's kids to do a photoshoot!

After the photo shoot, Kandi, Joey, myself, and Jamie (on speaker phone) cleared up the last of the details for Jamie's shower. Then, Joey and I talked money. Then, it was more hanging out!

We headed out around midnight. Slept in until about 10 Sunday morning. We spent the morning hanging out, just me and Tom. Then, we got to talk to Tom's dad - He's still in Germany but hopefully heading back to Texas soon.

Then, we went out back and started mapping out where our back patio is going to go. Now, it's just a matter of getting our materials list together, and quite possibly start clearing out the area and setting things up next weekend! Yay!! Possibly by the end of the summer, we should have our patio finished! We should be able to have a nice fall patio party... How great would that be?!

Anyway, now I'm working on trying to relax before this week - End of month gets me so wound up! lol!

Anyways, I'm off here now. I've got to upload pics on Kandi's facebook page and then on to mine. Love you all!

<3 Jess

7.18.2010

"I love you!"

That has got to be the three greatest words on the planet.

Tom and I tell each other, probably 20 to 30 times a day that we love each other. It never gets old either, y'know?

Anyway, we had such a great weekend.

Friday, was a pretty good day at work. Nothing super great, but nothing to shake your fist at, y'know? Anyway, after work, Tom and I went to mom and dad's for burgers and chips for dinner. We hung out for a while, then, once we we were ready to go, we grabbed Brett, Nikki, and TJ and headed off to our house!

We love having the kids over, there's a lot of energy in the house, and they are super well behaved kids. They've been begging to come over since before World Championships, but because of how crazy things were - trying to get Worlds set up, then Worlds itself, then 4th of July weekend, then my birthday - this was honestly the first weekend we had available to snag the kids.

Anyway, once we got to the house, Brett and Tom settled down for some Halo action on the Xbox. TJ, Nikki, and I got to work working on some birds nest prototypes for Jamie's baby shower. Once we got those done, we all sat down to watch A Goofy Movie and TJ, Nikki, and I were coloring. Nikki fell asleep on the short couch. Once the movie was over, we let Brett and Tom play more Halo. Because TJ needs almost no stimuli while he's trying to get to sleep, I had to put him in our guest room to go to sleep. we put a night light in the room, and within 20 or 30 minutes, he was out.

I got on my computer and was looking up more stuff for the shower, and finally went to bed around midnight, Come to find out, Brett was up until about 1 a.m. (probably the latest he's ever stayed up!) and Tom was up until about 2 a.m.

I woke up multiple times between 430 and 630 - I usually wake up lots of times all night long when we have the kids over. I always have this fear that something is going to happen while we have them over... Nothing has ever happened, but they are not my kids, i'd feel terrible if something happened. I'd never be able to live with myself.

Anyway, the last time I got up, I checked in on Tj, he was asleep, then I went to check on Nikki and Brett in the living room, and they were both asleep - i was super excited because i had just gotten it into my head that I should get a shower and wash my face, brush my teeth - you know, normal morning routine before the kids woke up... Then, as I walked past the guest room again, TJ said "Sausau?" It was so darn cute!!

He had made it through the night with a dry diaper! Yay TJ man! so we celebrated with a little bit of chocolate! lol! Then, we went into the living room and watched spongebob before the other two got up. After about half an hour of spongebob - TJ looked at me and said "I'm hun-gee Sausau" so I told TJ he had to ask Uncle Tom to go get donuts... hehe!

So, TJ crawled up into our bed, and I sat down on the edge of our bed, and TJ said "Uncle Tom?" really really quietly. and Tom rolled over and looked at him. and TJ burst out the with the biggest most adorable grin ever! and said "Uncle Tom, donuts please? and chocolate milk please?" lol! Tom couldn't contain his happiness at how cute TJ was. I mean, how can you resist that?? So Uncle Tom got up and went to pick up donuts and chocolate milk.

TJ and I went back to watching sponge bob. About the time Tom got back with breakfast, Nikki was up. Then, the ruckus in the kitchen for breakfast woke Brett up, so he joined us for breakfast.

After Breakfast Tom and Brett got back into Halo, and the younger ones and I got to using WonderColors markers and coloring books... Those are super cute! Then, after about an hour for Brett and Tom to play Halo, we played Carnival Games on the Wii - super fun!
Then, we gathered up all of their stuff and headed back to their house - cuz they were hitting up Magic Springs that afternoon.

We got lots of hugs and I love you's then we headed off to get Tom a hair cut, then we met Tom's mom for a lunch in Bryant. We went to Layla's - a greek restaurant kind of tucked away. OMG it's fantastic!

After lunch, Tom and I came back to the house and relaxed. I was able to do a lot of stuff for the shower, and also able to set up the address list that Jamie supplied us with, and then started thinking of a lot more things I need to get/do to prepare. Y'know, things I can get started on now? Well, then, around like 5 or 530, we started playing Lego Harry Potter - omg I love that game! We played for a good 3 or 4 hours!

I swear Lego games and Harry Potter games are the only ones I can really play for more than half an hour or so. it's hilarious. Anyway, we hit the sack around 1030 or 11.

Today (Sunday), we got up, I watched a couple episodes of SpongeBob, and did some more research/design work for the shower. Then, we headed out - dropped off a computer program to my dad, then grabbed some yummy lunch at Taco Bueno. After lunch, we did a little shopping, got some stuff for the shower, then headed back home. We watched some Whale Wars on netflix, then just kind of hung out for a while, then we waited until it "cooled off" outside. (Read "cooled off" as "dropped below 'hotter than hell!'" lol!) After it "cooled off", we got busy on our front yard. Now, the other thing to remember, because our house is on basically a corner lot and it's as large as a lot and a half... haha! I have about 50% to 75% more front yard than a normal lot lol! It looks so much better now! and everything smells like fresh cut grass! Too bad we were hot as heck, and stunk to high heaven lol! so we showered, and now we're watching more whale wars.

lol!

Sorry no pics this time! I just always get so busy and hands on when i have the kids over, i just forget that other people might like to see what we're up to! lol! I'll have more pics here soon, hopefully! lol!

love,
Jess

7.11.2010

Best. Birthday. Ever.

Ok, so for as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be 27. I don't know the "logistics" of it... but I always thought 27 is the perfect age... This is THE year, this is MY year... So far, 25 hours into being 27, I'd have to say the theory stands.

At 12:15 a.m. Saturday, July 10, 2010 - Tom let me open my birthday gifts! We had received a package from his dad and step mom with my presents in it! One, was a t-shirt that said "Scrap Queen" It's pink and has a pretty design on it! I love it! Then, there was a whole bunch of "Scrap supplies". New file folders for my box where I organize my papers and stickers, sticky notes, tabbies, a journal, a new mousepad (that i can put a picture in!) and notecards with envelopes.

Then, Tom let me open my gifts from him. On our kitchen table, he had said a Bath & Body Works bag - he knows I LOVE Japanese Cherry Blossom body wash - there were four bottles, then underneath the bottles was a BRAND NEW 50 - 200 mm LENSE FOR MY NIKON D60!!!!!!! EEEEEEK!! It's fantastic! I can take upclose, tight photos without my subject knowing I am taking them! I can zoom in, from across the room, and get the freckles on Tom's face! (and he doesn't have a lot of freckles!) It is PERFECT!


After presents, we went to sleep. Saturday morning around 930ish, we got up, showered, dressed, and started in on some coffee. At some point in the morning, Tom had called his dad (who is in Germany right now- more on that in a bit), and left him a voicemail. Well, somewhere in the middle of our second cup of coffee, his dad called back. We had the best phone call with his dad. We talked for probably a good hour. It was fun! After a couple incoming calls, Dad decided he needed to get off the phone and get some work done. So Tom and I headed out to lunch.

Now, for those of you who don't know, my husband is awesome! When I say we headed out to lunch, I mean that Tom kept asking me to give him a number - any number - and it would decide which way we turned, which direction we went, which street to turn down! It was great! Well, we wound up at CheeburgerCheeburger (which is funny, because that's where we went for Tom's birthday in December!) I had the veggie burger, with guacamole and olives - it was the best sandwich I've ever had there, and probably within the top 3 veggie burgers I've ever eaten (and I love me some veggie burger!) We also got their fries - nom nom!

We decided after lunch, we wanted something sweet, so again, more numbers! We wound up at Shake's off of Chenal Parkway! I got their Butter Rum Cake Concrete - it was GREAT! The best concrete I've ever had there!

Then, Tom said "no more numbers, you don't get to pick where we go next." and I figured 'ok, what's he got in store for me now?' GATOR GOLF!!! (for those of you not from around Southwest Little Rock, Gator Golf is a putt-putt place, with two courses, go karts, and batting cages. We did both courses of golf! I loved it!! The first course, we were behind this really nice family - three teenaged boys, mom and dad. Really nice people (but where there are only two of us, and five of them - we kept getting right behind them). Anyway, after the first round, the family went inside the main office (where the a/c was! haha!) then we did too. They were taking a break before they started their next round. We grabbed a bottle of water and a White Cherry Slushie and headed right back out for the second course. It was so much fun! We didn't take score - but we both got a hole-in-one! Legitimately! We didn't cheat!

After Gator Golf, we came back to the house, played a little Lego Harry Potter and cooled down. Then, showered, dressed, and got ready to go out for dinner. Again, the numbers game! haha! We wound up at Crazy Hibachi in North Little Rock; a new restaurant for both of us. It was FABULOUS! For anyone from the Little Rock area, it's kind of like Shoguns - where you seat 6 or 8 people around a table, then a chef comes to the table and cooks all of the food. It was really good! We were kind of worried about the ticket - because some of the stuff was really expensive. We got the Fried Calamari appetizer, then I got Teryaki Chicken, and Tom got Teryaki Salmon. Oh - My - Gosh! it was fabulous! When we got the ticket, we were both surprised to see the bill was only like $35 for the two of us - maybe closer to $40. But if we went to Shoguns, we'd have had a $60 ticket! So, great prices, great food, great atmosphere, DEFINITELY going back!

After dinner (around 9ish) we headed out to find us a movie, we stopped at the Rave in little rock, but I don't like a lot of people - and I really wanted to see Despicable Me - and this was opening weekend for it! so we opted to head out to Benton's Tinsletown, and got to see it there - with almost an empty theater. It was great! SUCH a cute movie! Go see it! Take your kids! Take your nieces and nephews! Take the neighbor's kids! haha! It's so cute! "It's so fluffy I could die!" hahahahahahahaha!

Anyway, now we're back at the house - it's 1:20ish in the morning, and I am so ready for bed. But, before I do, why is Tom's dad in Germany?

Tom's Oma (his paternal grandmother, who lived in Fulda, Germany, passed away Thursday morning). Tom's father is an only child and has been in Germany for the past month with her, after her latest heart surgery. The initial surgery went well (I don't know the details about why they were doing surgery. But we know that the surgery itself went well. Afterwards though, she began to deteriorate. She wound up on life support, kidneys had shut down. The doctors were saying they couldn't take her off of life support, because she could "bounce back". Well, tom's father got to talk to her regular physician and had him talked to the doctor who was taking care of Oma, and convinced him to remove the life support. After they removed the life support, the doctors said she would only have a few days. Tom's father was there. He was able to speak with her, to be with her, and to help her go.

It has been an emotional time for Tom's father, and for Tom. He's never been as close to his father as I am to mine (I'm a daddy's girl - always have been, always will be...) but, with the passing of Oma, both Tom and his father seem to have a renewed sense of becoming closer, really getting to know each other. It's a very amazing thing to witness as an "outsider". Especially, to see it come from both sides. In the past, I have seen where Tom has pushed for that bond, other times where his father has been the one working towards it, but now, with Oma watching down, her boys are going to learn how to go from Father and Son - to Dad and Tom. Now, I know that makes it sound like they had no relationship, but they did. It was just more 'strained'. I don't know if that is the right word. But, it makes sense to me... haha! Sorry to ramble.

Anyway, Dad has a lot of photos of Tom when he was younger that his Oma kept. Dad's come across a lot of things in her home, which he is packing up by himself. I know it kills Tom to not be with his dad, when he clearly needs him near. But Dad knows Tom is here for him and will be with him in spirit. Also, Tom and Dad both have Skype (the internet phone program) and so they have talked multiple times over the last couple of days, and the calls will continue, the visits will continue. They will share memories, and thoughts, and feelings. It'll be an amazing growth for them both, and I'm so proud to be included in it all.

Anyway, I'm done with the talking! I'm going to add my photos from today, and then I'm going to hit the bed! I'm exhausted! lol!

I love you all! Thank you all for the bday wishes! It was so much fun to keep getting emails and notifications on facebook all day with thoughtful sentiments! Thank you again!

<3 Jessica
(The new and improved 27 year old version!)