QT Pie

Last weekend I got to take pictures of the cutest, funniest little girl.  She is the daughter of Jeff's co-worker.  We went to Memorial Park and it was H-O-T, and we even met at 8:30am.  Can I please tell you, I could not even begin to count the number of crazy Houstonians that were running that morning.  That's dedication in my book!

Future photographer perhaps??

P.S. If anyone in Houston has suggestions on good picture spots, I'm open to ideas!

It's our House-iversary!

One year ago on this past Tuesday Jeff and I handed over more money than we ever had before, singed our lives on a lot of dotted lines for the next 30 years and took possesion of the biggest purchase we've made to date, we bought our house!

We've done a lot of work to our house.  When we first looked at it and saw there was wallpaper, I said "No problem!" HA!  I recently told Jeff that  the next house we buy, if it has wallpaper we aren't buying it and that's final. 

The one thing you really take for granted about living in apartments for so long is the maintenance man.  Oh Mr. Maintenance Man how I miss you and the ease of calling you up to change the florescent bulbs in the kitchen.  The first time we had water leaking through the ceiling in the gameroom of our house, I'm not going to lie, I panicked.  Thank God for the home warranty!!  Not sure what we would have done without you American Home Shield :)

Although it wasn't our perfect house when we moved in, we are (slowly) making it that way.  We love it and there's nothing like driving up to your house everyday and knowing that it's yours (and the banks).

I thought I'd share a couple before and after pictures, don't worry, I have PLENTY more where these came from!

KITCHEN BEFORE

 

KITCHEN AFTER 

BREAKFAST AREA BEFORE

 

 

BREAKFAST AREA AFTER 

An Open Letter to JRL

Dear Husband,

I win. 

I win in the dishwasher debate that we've been having for years.  The debate over whether or not you have to rinse your dishes before you put them in the dishwasher.

Should you pre-rinse your dishes before loading the dishwasher?

If you don't feel like seeing how wrong you are by reading the article, let me summarize for you.

1) Dishes will not get any cleaner if you pre-rinse them
They will especially not get cleaner if you let the dishes 'soak', or what I like to call, avoid loading the dishwasher by saying you are letting your ice cream bowl 'soak'

2) Pre-rinsing is a complete waste of time, money and energy
That's time, money and energy that this wife just does not have. 

3) Rinsing dishes before loading the dishwasher can do more harm than good
Dang, our dishwasher already sucks, do we want to make it worse!  Let's not send the dishwasher to the unemployement office because we aren't giving it any work to do.  Give that dishwasher some dirty dishes to clean!

So in conclusion, I'm right, you're wrong, but I still love you.

Sincerely,

VEL
Your loving (and lovely I might add) Wife

Happy Father's Day!

My Dad has always said I was his favorite youngest daughter.  I think it's his way of making my brother and sister feel better about me being his all time favorite.

I can remember weekends at Dad's house and we would go to the drive in movie.  We'd make a big bag of popcorn, Angie always got to sit in the front because she wore glasses (pfft!), and I'm pretty sure I never made it through one whole movie without falling asleep.  Hey!  Maybe that's why I couldn't sit in the front. 

He was a chef in the kitchen, making Banquet Fried Chicken, Vienna Sausages, and fruit cocktail (making sure everyone got at least one cherry) and all the Pepsi you could drink.  

What he may have lacked in culinary skills ;) he made up for by being there for everything.  Basketball games, Football games, Track meets, Choir Concerts, Beauty Pageants etc, etc, etc.

Happy Father's Day Dad!  Thanks for everything, love you :)

I've been fortunate enough to have a wonderful step-dad as well.  Phil has always been there when we needed anything.  I never had to scrape snow off my windshield or warm up my car until I went college, I never had to worry about getting my oil change, windshield wiper blades changed, car checked out until I moved away from Indiana.  I got a husband and lost my mechanic! :)  Thanks Phil for everything you did and do for me.  Love you!

Happy Father's Day to ALL the father's out there!

TGIF

I'm sure a lot of you saw the picture I posted on Facebook last night of our sweet little Lily Belle.

AHHH!  She's coming after you, run for your lives!

I just wanted to make sure you all knew that she is still the sweet little puppy you all know and love, she just really, really wants those bubbles ;)

Have a great weekend everyone, I knew we will.  I see plenty of bubbles and sunshine in our future plans!

Real Housewives of...

I love them all!  Real Housewives of Orange County, New York, New Jersey, Atlanta.  They are all a bunch of hot messes, but it sure makes for interesting drama.

So, if you follow the shows, you know they are wrapping up the New York season.  There is a 3 part reunion show.  And you did read that right, there was enough drama in just the reunion that they split it into THREE shows.  Dang, these girls are craaazy.  I have a few comments about this season.

1.  Kelly is super duper C-R-A-Z-Y!  I mean really, she should be on some kind of medication, no joke.  I sit in utter disbelief during the reunion shows listening to her talk about how all the ladies bullied her.  She saw the footage, what is she seeing??  What?!?!

2. I've never had a baby, but how in the world did Bethanny look so good just days after giving birth?  I     mean besides the huge square jaw she looks fabulous. 

3. Alex really spoke up this season.  She's very weird though, right?  I really did not like her in past seasons, but this season I did.  Sometimes her hair just looks terrible though (I had to say it).

4. I like Ramona this season.  She's been keeping it real, and even though she does have 'crazy eyes' I dig her.  Her runway walk, not so much.  Ha!

5.  Jill is totally trying to look like the good person and just apologize for everything that she did.  Whatever let's you sleep at night honey.

6. Sonja cracks me up!  I love everything about her, except her too big lips, a little less collagen please.  I like how she tries to get along with everyone and she really seems like she is the type of person that is genuinely nice. 

7.  LuAnn, I just couldn't wait to talk about LuAnn and her brand new dance tune.  As much as I think her song is stupid, the dang thing gets stuck in my head and will not leave!  Money can't buy you class.  Well money can't buy you a singing voice either.

Whose song do you like better?  LuAnn's "Money Can't Buy you Class" or Kim's from Real Housewives of Atlanta "Don't be Tardy for Party".  I'm going to have to say tie ;)  Tie in that they are both horrible and they both get stuck in my head for days on end.





RHOPearland?? Where do I sign up?? 

Flashing lights

Lily didn't like Jeff's birthday card from my Mom too well, in fact, she freaked out a little more each time we played it.  And yes, we're mean, we played it a lot.