Why I'm annoyed with facebook

I will be the first to admit, I probably troll facebook more than I should, but most of the time, I just lurk, I don't post much anymore.  There are a few personal reasons for this (such as I don't feel the need to share every detail of my life with everyone on Facebook), but honestly, we are pretty boring and don't have much to share anyway, haha. 

There have been a few things happening on facebook lately that have annoyed me, in no particular order. 
- Sharing recipes on facebook.  Come one people, if you want recipes, go to Pinterest. 
- The "ads" that are coming up in my news feed.  All of these "sponsered links" need to go. 
- The buy/sell/trade groups.  There is already a spot for that people, Craigslist!
- The "share" button.  I think this may be my biggest complaint.  While I have used the "share" button, I share pictures.  People are getting a little too share happy.  People are sharing "news" stories without actually reading the full story, or without checking to see if the story is real or even current!  With all of the "news" sites floating around, anyone can be a reporter now.  People are sharing stories that are simply not true and getting others worked up.  This is ridiculous.  Get your news from whatever your prefered news source is, but make sure that the story is credible. 

What happened to the facebook where everyone shared fun statuses and fun wedding pictures/vacation pictures/baby pictures?  Can we bring that facebook back?

My Best Friend's Wedding

Since Sarah and I met in 6th grade, we have been great friends!  We've had our road bumps, but we've always made it through and been there for each other.  Even though we haven't lived in the same city for 12 years, we remain close. 

 

Like the silly high school girls we were, we promised each other that even though we were going to be hundreds of miles away, we would stay close in college and be bridesmaids in each others weddings.  Little did we know, we would be fufilling those promises within two months of each other! 

 

 

 

I am so lucky to have gotten to stand right next to Sarah on her wedding day.  Sarah's motto for the day was "there's no crying in baseball" and I managed to make it through the ceremony without tears.  I had a moment when she handed me her bouquet, but I quickly locked it up! 

 

 

Sarah and Medlock's wedding was absoutely breathtaking.  Everything went so smoothly and flawlessly!  Sarah was an absoutely beautiful bride, and Med was so handsome in his seersucker suit!  The weather was perfect (the ceremony was outdoors), everyone stuck to the schedule, the ceremony represented Sarah and Medlock very well, I honestly don't think anything could have made it any better!

 

 

 

I have been so blessed by having Sarah and her family in my life.  Her parents were like my second parents growing up; I think I was over at her house as much as I was at my own house.  We have so many memories together and inside jokes to laugh about, and I wouldn't trade that for anything!  I can't wait until we get to do it all over again in two months!

 

 

Congradulations Sarah and Medlock!  I wish you both all the happiness in the world! 

 

 



 





Cinnamon Creek Ranch

Quite awhile back (like before Christmas), I found a Groupon for a 4 hour archery session at a local archery range.  I figured this was right up Will's alley, so I purchased it for him as a birthday gift (I had already finished his Christmas shopping).  I figured he would want to call up one of his buddies and head out one day, so I was a little surprised when he wanted me to tag along! 

It was a perfect day to be outside! The temp was 65, and a little wind kept us cool while outside. 

When we arrived, they handed us bows, a few arrows and sent us to the indoor short range to practice a bit.  Then we headed to the longer indoor range (targets were further away), then finally outside to the "zoo".  Trails were carved out and they had 30-40 animal targets to shoot at.  We had a blast!

 

Even though we had 4 hours, we only lasted about 3.  Archery was much harder on our arms than we thought! 

Our Forever Home

Several people have been asking to see pictures of our forever home, especially since we moved in and changed things.  I wanted to wait until we had everything done, and that meant having everything moved out of the townhouse.  While it was on the market, the townhouse still had some furniture, so it could be staged.  Now that the townhouse offically sold, we officially moved everything out and in the forever house!  I'm finally ready to show pictures!

This is the before/after of the eat-in kitchen, the very large eat-in kitchen! We took down the awful valences (that were hung up on tree branches, literal tree branches- first thing to go), had the wallpaper taken down, textured the walls and painted the kitchen.  Really opens it up! We also moved the light fixture to the formal dining.

 

More kitchen views:

 

Family room, all we did here was put a fresh coat of paint on the walls

 

 

Formal dining, a fresh coat of paint and changed light fixture.

 

Formal living, we are using this as an "office" for the time being, as the "office" room upstairs will be the nursery when we have kids.

 

Master bedroom, new paint! I absoutely love this color!

 

 



(I promise we make the bed, but CC decides to unmake it when she wants to burrow under the covers.)

Master bath, we haven't done anything yet, but I eventually I want the wall paper to come down!

I didn't clean off the counter before I took the picture!

 

Second living room (upstairs) got a new paint color.

 

 

 

Guest bedroom #1, no change.

 

 

Guest bedroom #2, new paint.

 

Full bath #1 upstairs, the wallpaper coming down is my summer project!

 

There are two more rooms and one more full bath upstairs.  The room directly at the top of the stairs will be the nursery eventually.  The other is actually a finished attic space, that will be a playroom/craft room.  It has sloped ceilings, so it may not bed a bedroom, unless one of the kids really wants it down the road. 

There is also a half bath downstairs, just off the laundry room (but I don't like pictures with toilets in them).

 

We have an amazing backyard with lots of rooms for dogs to run and play, and plenty of squirrels for them to bark at.  I love our neighborhood and our neighbors have been great so far! 

 

I honestly don't think I could have dreamed up a better house.  While there are surface things that I want changed due to my tastes, the house is perfect.  We have tons of attic space for storage, and more than enough rooms.  I absoutely love cooking in my new kitchen and have amazing counter/prep space, and more cabinet space than I can fill up right now (but I'm working on that). 

 

We are so happy to call this our forever home! 

 

 

 



Finally!!!

I've been MIA from the blogging world for awhile, but things have been pretty stressful around here!  I'm very happy to report that one stressor has been removed...

 

My townhouse has SOLD!

 

Since we bought the forever house in December, we did a few surface renovations, and moved in.  My townhouse went on the market in mid-January, and had a contract on it in 6 days.  6. Days.  Plus, we got what we wanted for it, which was a huge relief.  The inspection asked for an AC service, but that's it, which made it very easy.  I am so blessed that we got a quick contract on it, and then even more blessed that the 10 day option period expired before the townhouse next to me went into foreclosure, that would have been dreadful if I didn't have my contract. 

 

The process of closing on the house was the most stressful part, especially when the title company calls 2 hours before I'm supposed to be signing papers to say the closing has been post-poned.  Then my realtor tells me she is going out of town, so the closing is pushed back a few more days. 

 

The closing was re-scheduled for Friday at 4:30, the last possible appointment of the week.  My stomach was in knots all day on Friday, and every time my phone went off, my heart dropped a little.  I was still on edge when we walked into the office, but relaxed when they told me they were gathering all the papers for me to sign.  It was finally done!  I never imagined that it would sell so quickly! 

 

While I am sad that I no longer own the townhouse, I am so excited to close that chapter.  I had a great life in that little house, and it was perfect for what I needed at that time.  Those walls heard many laughs, many tears, many friendly voices, and much love.  I am so thankful that I was able to be a homeowner at such a young age, and it really helped me know what I really want in my forever home!  I'm so excited about our new home and can't wait to make even more memories here in this new chapter of my life! 

I like being Catholic

 There certainly has been lots of media attention on the Catholic Church lately, with the announcement that Pope Benedict XVI stepping down as the Bishop of Rome at the end of the month. 

There has been speculation that with the election of a new Pope, the Catholic Church will be making major changes.  Not only is this grossly untrue, I find it hard to believe that the majority of Catholics around the world will want it to happen. 

As a practicing Catholic, one of my favorite things about the church is our traditions.  I like the fact that the Church doesn't change with the wind, and doesn't change her whole belief system because it's the "popular" thing to do.  I love our liturgy, and knowing that I can go to any other Catholic church in the world and hear the same mass readings and participate in the same traditions as if I were in my home parish.  I like knowing that no matter what is going on in the world, I have a church that is firm and is my rock.  I love the celebrations we have in the Holy Trinity, Advent, Christmas, Easter, and Lent.  I love recieving Christ every single week in the form of the Eucharist, not just saving it for "special occasions", every day is a reason to recieve Christ.   

I am certainly not the perfect Catholic representitive, I am VERY far from it.  I have been hurt by the Catholic church, and I have found healing in the church as well.  I know I do things that don't represent the Catholic church on an everyday basis, but I still love being Catholic.  Where there are certain aspects of the church decisions I disagree with, I don't want to leave the Catholic Church. 

I pray that whoever God chooses to lead the Catholic Church in the coming years, continues to lead the church down the same path.  There is much specuation that withthe election of a new pope, the church will make major changes (the most common speculations being lifting the ban on birth control, allowing women to be deacons, not requiring priests to be celibate), but frankly, I will be disappointed if the church changes its teachings.  One of the great things about the Catholic Church is that it doesn't change with the wind, it doesn't change its teaching because of what is popular at the time. That's not the job of a church, a church shouldn't have to "campaign for votes", that's not what true faith is.  If you don't agree with the church teachings, you are free to explore other religions.  

Many people leave the Catholic Church because the teachings don't mesh with what they believe.  I don't think this is "right or wrong", it just is, I'm not in a position to judge people because of their beliefs.  This is why we have so many factions of the Christian religion, because people didn't agree with what a church was teaching and they broke off and created a new branch.  There are some faith traditions that are very similar to Catholicism, and there are some that are very far from it.  I certainly don't believe that I am right and they are wrong, or vice versa, we just have different beliefs, and I respect that, everyone has their own faith journey.  We love the same God, and in the end, that's what is important.

My prayer is that God lead the College of Cardinals to prayerfully select the next leader of the Catholic Church.  I trust whoever is chosen will lead the church as gracefully as his predecesor in the coming years.

Red Spills

I have never been a clumsy person.  I have great balance, I don't drop things often, and I generally lead an accident free life...until this week. 

I don't know if it's stress and trying to do too many things at once, or if I'm just off balance, but this week has been crazy!  Tuesday evening, I was unpacking from a quick trip to Houston for a conference.   As I was putting away my bathroom stuff, I dropped a small (thankfully) bottle of red (and I mean RED) nail polish on the tiled bathroom floor.  RED. SPOTS. EVERYWHERE.  One trip to Walmart at 9:45 PM, two bottles of nail polish remover, and about an hour spent on our hands and knees later, my bathroom floor was cleaned.  Other than the tinges of red in the grout, you really can't tell.  Then of course I had to clean the floor since we were using acetone remover. 

This morning, I decided to actually use the Keurig coffee maker we received as a Christmas gift.  We have been using our regular coffee pot, but we are out of coffee since I didn't go to the store this weekend (let's face it, if I didn't go grocery shopping, we would starve...or at least be a little thinner).  So as I am pulling the box out of the pantry, I knock over a bottle of red wine.  RED. WINE. EVERYWHERE.  Are you seeing the red theme?!?  So I had to clean red wine off the floor at 7 AM today, BEFORE I had even had my coffee. 

I'm staying away from the color red indefinitely. 

On a positive note, my floors are incredibly clean!