Final Touches....

We finished (well almost) Jilian's room, and it turned out great! I just need a few things to complete the room, like a bedskirt and light switch plate and rugs and a few things that a Canton trip would fix (maybe I can talk Brad into going next weekend!). Here are the pics...

Here we are almost done....

The stripes turned out great!

Aunt Janie worked VERY hard on these paintings, and they turned out great, too!

The *almost* final look....

By the way, the way to get the painting tape to stick on a textured wall is to use a blow dryer on it to heat it up. This makes the tape malleable so it will stick easier with VERY little touch up.

Well....it's official....

my husband is unemployed. His last day at his PREVIOUS job was today, and he starts his NEW job on Monday. His biggest worries for the next two days are what movies he's going to see! Whatever....

Summer Fun

Well, we always have so much fun when Jilian's cousins, Ella and Seth, come to town. We did a lot of swimming because it's so HOT! The girls even swam in just their underwear - no pics posted!


We went to the Frisco RoughRider game, and we even got to watch fireworks afterward. Needless to say, we didn't get many pics - we were just way too busy!

So, we also found this way cool, new dessert recipe!

It's broken up Nilla wafers, layered with strawberries and blueberries, then layered with this mixture of cream cheese, milk, vanilla pudding mix and cool whip. Then, repeat the layers and top with cool whip. YUM! :)

One more thing.....it's finally here! Jilian starts preschool on July 6th. She will be attending Primrose, just down the street. We weren't prepared to have her start until August 17th, when we originally enrolled her, but we got rather short notice at her current school, so we had to enroll her a tad bit early. We went back and forth about where to put her for the last 6 weeks of summer, and decided that it was best to have her enrolled in Primrose (even though Mimi is a little sad she can't keep her all summer - Mimi is a very busy woman!) :)She is very excited to start. When we got home after visiting them last week, she said she wanted to go back! Yay - this will make it a little less traumatic for the parents! And, at the dinner table tonight, we talked about her new school, and she was very excited about it. During the summer, it's sort of 'free play' - just like public schools. Then, in the fall, she will be sat down and taught to in a classroom setting. They have an awesome program, and we are excited about what she will bring home to share with us that she learned that day. I'm sure her first day will still be a little overwhelming (for the parents), but I know she will do well. We'll keep you posted!

My Poor Office

So, when we almost got washed away on Thursday, my office flooded. It rained, actually it poured, for 4 hours straight. I haven't seen rain like that in a long time. As it turns out, I forgot my lunch that day, so I suggested to my office that we order pizza. Well, EVERYONE in Dallas decided to do that. I called 3 pizza places - one wouldn't take any more orders, one's line was busy, and finally, Piggie Pies would only let me pick it up. The pool at my community was filled to the brim, in fact, it almost spilled over. When I stepped into my parking lot of my office, the 'river' running through the parking lot had my foot completely covered with water - never seen anything like it. So, the water just pooled outside my office window, and finally it leaked into my office. Along one wall, the carpet was just soaked. We had to move my furniture around to get it dried out. Good thing I work where I do - quick access to carpet cleaners! So, here is what my office looked like on Thursday and Friday while we were drying out the carpet. Needless to say, I didn't get much work done, and the fans were so loud, if anyone wanted to talk to me, they had to yell!

Yay!

Brad got a new job! Yay! We are SO happy. He is finally out of the grasp of...well...nevermind... if you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all.... We're just glad he has a new job. He will be working for Finish Line in HR still. He'll be working from home (jealous) and have a company car (no more paying for gas). They will also pay for his cell phone. His territories include Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and, well, we're not quite sure....Brad got a new job! He'll be traveling a lot more - boo....guess I'm gonna have to learn to cook - double boo! He flew to Indianapolis to interview on Monday, and Tuesday they called and offered him the job. Giving his notice to his current employer (we won't name any names) was like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. I'm very proud of him....now let's celebrate! Woo hoo!

Okay, so I have to be a little sappy.

Jilian just told me that she needs a band-aid for the ouchie on her head. I told her that band-aids don't ALWAYS make ouchies feel better....'But, Mommy will kiss it.' She said 'Oh, that feels better already, Mommy!' And so, I kissed it again. She said 'One more kiss and it will be all better.' How sweet....

Basketball....

....is NOT Jilian's sport. She wouldn't shoot, she wouldn't dribble and finally I convinced her to shoot ONLY if I held her up to the rim. The little girl in the yellow shirt, Jilian's partner-Tinley, was precious. While they were huddled together getting instructions from the 'coach' - I use that term very loosely - she ran over to Tinley and wouldn't leave her side. They 'stretched' together, and when the coach asked everyone to grab a partner, they immediately held hands. It was so cute! So, then they had to bounce the ball back and forth to each other. They did pretty good. Jilian got distracted a little bit, but it was a lot to take in - even for the parents. I learned from Tinley's mom that she would only come if she didn't have to wear tennis shoes and could wear her Converse - a little girl more 'girly' than Jilian!

They had to line up on the line and dribble to the next line - about 15 feet - and then dribble back. Tinley had to go to the bathroom, and when she was gone, Jilian raced around the gym looking for 'her partner.' Too bad we won't be going back to see Tinley! (actually, Brad is going to try next Saturday - turns out, basketball isn't Mommy's sport either.) :)

Already a fun summer!

Okay, so during the summer, we spend most of our time at the pool. And, Jilian picked right back up where she left off last summer - completely fearless in the water. To the point that it's almost scary. She wears arm floaties and sometimes a ring. When we swim at home, she swims in our little pool in the backyard. We have made it fun - sort of - by puting the slide from her jungle gym in the pool and she slides down that. It's quite hilarious....and a little bit ghetto!
But, at Angie and Niel's pool, she has so much fun! We went to Abbey's birthday party on Saturday where there were so many kids, I was a nervous wreck! I couldn't keep up with all of them, and then I realized I didn't have to because their OWN parents were watching them! I was still a nervous wreck though.
Here she is in the DEEP end.....she is having so much fun! And, here she is, completely fearless, jumping in the DEEP end off the diving rock.
Look how excited she is!
This is Madison. She LOVED playing with Madison; she wouldn't leave the poor girl alone! But, Maddy has a younger sister Jilian's age, and so she loved playing with Jilian, too.
Okay, so, this is Mason. Let me explain - he was 100% protected by arm floaties, a life jacket and a ring. He also had the goggles so he could see when he DIDN'T go under water. Mason never got in the pool. But, boy was he ready.....

So, here she is the next day jumping in with Abbey - again....completely FEARLESS!

Here she is with a new trick...

Okay, this was really funny....she had one of those life vests on, but she couldn't keep her bottom half under water. So, she just kept flipping from back to front. Go ahead...put me on the 'Bad Mommy' list because we couldn't stop laughing enough to help her out!

Well, there was one incident where Jilian looked like she was in trouble. She accidentally fell off the edge, and in doing so, her ring came off, and that caused one of her arm floaties to come off, too. She was splashing around and had a look of terror on her face. What did I do? I jumped in, clothes and all (luckily nothing in my pockets), and didn't even think twice about it. Once I was in, I though 'I'm not a good swimmer - what the heck am I gonna do?' Well, motherly instincts kicked in again, and I became the best swimmer to tread water. I got her above the water and over to safety. What did Brad do? He yelled from the deck right before I jumped in that Niel had already reached her and had ahold of her. Yup. Sat on the deck and barely moved. Thanks for all your help, Dad! Once I got to her, Niel let me take over - I think because he felt sorry for me because I had just jumped in IN MY CLOTHES, so he wanted me to FEEL like I was doing something.

Okay, last video....I promise. This the funniest thing I've ever seen. This is Angie's cat. This is how he drinks water from the faucet. He puts his head under the water and drinks from the stream coming off his head. Have you ever seen a cat get this wet intentionally?! :) And, then have the nerve to look at me like I was crazy!