Happy Mother's Day!

To my beautiful mother and to all the other mamas out there, happy Mother's Day! Yes, puppies and kitties count.

#WordlessWednesday

My boys in the bluebonnets.

Really, Weekend?

So my weekend started with a trip to the ER Friday afternoon. I'm 99% sure it was high blood pressure (I was shaky, dizzy, nauseous), but since they waited an hour and a half to take it, it was fine by the time they did. Super helpful. They took six vials of blood, a cat scan, and four hours of my time, then $150 of my money and told me nothing. Not that I'm, um, bitter. I'm going to get a cuff to use at home to check myself. I've been getting the nausea/dizziness thing a lot recently, and I'm not loving that, so here's to hoping keeping track on my own at least gives me something concrete to go to my real doctor with.

Then Sunday morning, my son decided it would be a nice way to start things off by poking me in the eyeball and scratching my cornea. So I spent the first half of Sunday with a Halloween eye patch on. Thank you, Pike. I love you, but it would be great if you could NOT maim mommy.

Now today I'm still tired, I'm feeling the nausea again, and I'm just plugging along to make it until I can go home. Upside? I was down a pound when I weighed in the other day. At least something's looking up!

Wait... I'm what now?

So... I'm 30. Like, for real. 30. I've been on this planet for three decades. As Wes and I discussed recently, that means I've officially been with him for 1/3 of my life. Whoooah! The thing is, I'm not experiencing any kind of major freakout. It's a touch surreal, but it's not bad. It sounds old, but I don't really FEEL old. I feel good. I've got an awesome husband, a great family, a beautiful baby, crazy ass puppies... and life's good.

While I completely reserve the right to change my mind and have a breakdown, for the moment, I'm very happy and grateful. Let's see how long that holds out ;)

Future Hottie Edition

Yeah, that's right, my son's gonna be a heartbreaker someday. So today? You get cute baby pictures! Don't pretend like you don't love it. I know you do. Check out that flirting!

A Healthy New Year

The time has come once again to go "Oh, crap, I need to be healthier." Pregnancy and the craziness of Pike's birth threw Wes and I a bit off track from our goals in that arena, but it's a new year. We're rededicating ourselves to losing some inches, losing some pounds, and gaining a little muscle tone. We've got a bouncing baby boy who will soon be expecting us not only to sit and play with him and carry him around but also chase him, play catch, run... god only knows. Terrifying. In any case, we'll need some sort of cardio capacity to handle it.

Wish us luck! FYI, I've started back up with SparkPeople toward that end, so you can find me at username beth_wilde if you're using the site as well. If you aren't and you're trying to lose some inches or pounds or get in shape or whatnot, I strongly suggest it. It's free, and you can do anything from chatting to counting calories to tracking exercise to getting meal plans.

Busy Weekend

Edie sleeping, originally uploaded by elycefeliz.

Sadly now it's not time for sleeping like a cute baby squirrel - it's time for the work week. This weekend, we did a LOT around the house trying to get ourselves ready for Thanksgiving. We moved in some furniture that's been waiting to come into the house for forever - a dresser, shelves and a table - as well as organizing the garage. We had stuff in there from moving both Wes' mom and grandmother, and it was, frankly, an unholy mess. We still have a little work to do, but compared to what it was, the garage looks like a palace. We can even get to things. Ooooo.

We also tackled an exciting project that we've been talking about for a long time and converted a set of shelves into storage for my paintings! I'm psyched about that one. I'll be posting about it at Wilde Designs in the next few days so that y'all can see how we did it and how it turned out since we're both pretty proud.

Tonight we're planning to fix the hutch on the dresser we brought in, and maybe get started using some Woolite on some old linens to see if we can pretty them up again. Wish us luck!

I'm Getting Married in the...

...well, in the afternoon tomorrow, but it's still a great song. lol

Wedding Bells

Wedding Rings, originally uploaded by Helian Photography (aka Cairntoul).

In a little less than a month, Wes and I will be married. I'm surprised and excited all at the same time. It's funny because it won't really CHANGE anything (we own a house, we have puppies, we're in love), but it will change something. Some little indefinable thing.

We're keeping things simple and hitting the Justice of the Peace on Friday the 8th, then having dinner with friends and family the next day. Then? We go off on our honeymoon and get some quality time together. We aren't registering anywhere or asking friends to buy us anything. If you'd like to contribute, we ask that you make a donation to our Honeyfund - or you can just get in touch with me for my PayPal email and you can send it my way directly. We already have a household set up and while we'd love to touch some things up around the house, coming home from our honeymoon without a bunch of debt would be an even bigger gift!

O.M.G.

Today is a strange and wonderful day. You see that tiny little kid in the picture up there? No, not the geeky one with the braces, the little cute one. Yep, that's the one. That, everybody, is my baby sister. And she is a baby. Dangit, she IS!

But as of today, she is also 18 years old. I can hardly believe that I've known her for 18 years. It's hard to think of that since I remember so clearly driving to the hospital and waiting around for someone, ANYONE to let us in the room so I could finally meet my little sister. I remember learning how to take care of her and going through awesome times (crayon drawing sessions together, more recent trips to A-Kon) and some rougher times (papau and I used to have to all but sit on her to get her clothes on to get her ready for preschool).

So before I get too weepy and dorky about the whole thing, I just want to say that I am super, super proud of my little sister. Not just for living 18 years. I mean, lots of people do that. I'm proud of her for growing into a sweet, smart young woman who I am proud to have as a friend and even prouder to have as a sister.

Happy Place

This is our fishing spot. This is the spot on Sulphur Creek where papau took me all the time when I was a little girl. He taught me how to cast and how to reel in a fish. He taught me to be patient and wait when I wanted to just reel in and cast over and over because it was more fun. He helped me win the Big Fish trophy at Kid Fish that now sits on my mantle.

When we finished fishing, we'd pile back into his old green Chevy truck and go to JJ's (sadly, it closed to become a Subway, then that moved as well), where we'd get apple fritters (the best I've ever had) and chocolate milk.

Still having trouble dealing with the idea that I won't be going there with him again. Almost every dream I have features him somehow or something that we shared. I know it's going to be that way for awhile. As sad as this post sounds, I really do mean what the title says. The places where I've shared those memories will always be happy ones for me, always bring a smile to my face even if there are some tears as well.

Figure 8

Alright, the number 8, not the figure. I was trying to be clever, okay! As of tomorrow, Wes and I have officially been together 8 years. AWESOME years. Epic years. By the end of this year, we'll be married, and I guess maybe we'll change our anniversary. I have no idea. Gets confusing after that long, doesn't it? So this is just a quick post to say that I'm really lucky to be with such an awesome guy who I have so much fun with.

<3

My Papau

Today at about 7:30 in the morning, my papau passed away. Please expect this entry to be rambling because I don't know how else to write it. The truth is that I'm not absorbing it yet. I do in parts, fits and starts that hurt like hell. I know it's going to hurt more and more over the next few days. I've had some rough bouts of sobbing and missing him and being scared of what it's going to be like without him in it.

It was peaceful. He was in the hospital earlier this year, and he's been declining since. He was tired. He worked hard his whole life fighting for his family, his country, building a home that was always full of love and light. Some of my most amazing memories are at grandma and papau's house: papau taking me fishing, doing jewelry work with grandma, the big breakfasts the two of them would put together on Sunday mornings before church.

And I'll always have those. I'm scared of the idea of what life will be like without papau in it, but I will always, always be grateful for the things that he did do for me and for all of us.

This is the last photo I have with him. I took it when I was down to visit a week ago.

A sweet friend from my rpgs sent me this poem which she picked for her grandfather's funeral:

God saw you getting tired,
And a cure was not to be.
So he put his arms around you,
And whispered “Come to me”.

With tearful eyes we watched you,
And saw you pass away.
Although we loved you dearly,
We could not make you stay.

A golden heart stopped beating,
Hard working hands to rest.
God broke our hearts
to prove to us,
He only takes the best.

My Mommy

My mom is awesome. Yeah, everybody says that. Everybody's probably right in their own way and for their own reasons. For me? It's because my mom has done so much for me for so long. She raised me as more or less a single parent, then did the same with my sister. When I was little, she went back to college, double majored, and kicked some serious academic ass. I like to think that I'm smart enough to be a worthy successor on that front. She became a teacher who is every bit as stellar as she was a student.

So here's to a mom who has worked hard, taught me a lot, and generally been awesomely fun to hang out with. I know a lot of people don't have parents they can talk to the way I can talk to my mom. They aren't able to trade cds to learn new music and get movie recommendations they can trust and drool over the same actors. I'm a very lucky daughter with a very rockin' mom. Happy Mother's Day, mommy!

Wedding Bells

This one's for everybody to join me in being dorky. Wes and I don't have any plans yet, do don't bother asking. But this is where I harass everyone else for my own assistance and amusement. What did you do for your wedding? Your honeymoon? What worked? What didn't? What would you do differently if you could do it all over again? If you aren't married but plan to be or just like thinking about cool, funky wedding ideas, what do you WANT to do? Promise I'll only steal the ideas I like. heh

And I should note that we may well run off and elope and leave the reception as the celebratory piece of it all that we share with other folks. We're cheap like that ;)

Proposing Marriage: a web card

Awww, look what Wes sent me last week. Guess what I checked ;)

Thanksgiving

Wes is sick, so it looks like our Thanksgiving will be lots of being at home and me taking care of him. heh It's nto funny, but it is. Someone from our family gets sick every single year around the holidays. It just happened to be Wes this year, poor guy! But we'll take what we have and enjoy the low key-ness of things instead of sweating it. Maybe he'll be better in time to enjoy Thanksgiving with his family this weekend when they come over. :: fingers crossed ::

I'm Social?

Apparently I am. At least the last couple of weeks I have been. First I spent the weekend before last with my very best friend. She was home on leave, and we got to hang out, and, well, it made my day. My week. Possibly my year. lol Friday night she came up and we did dinner (Sweet Basil in Denton - yum!) and coffee and chatted. Saturday, I went up to her parents' and her dad made bbq. Double yum! Plus it was as good seeing them as it was seeing her. <3 her parents.

Then this weekend, I went down to my mom's and we went to see The Gossip in Austin. It was AWESOME. First off all? Great music. Of course. Secondly? The drive went smoothly, we got great parking... win. Then Toni showed up, so I got to hang out with my mom, my bud I hardly ever get to see, and even met some new Rocky-related friends. It was awesome start to finish.

I then headed home, and Saturday we went to our friend Katie's Halloween party, which was also super fun. She had her house decorated beautifully (seriously, put us to shame!), and we watched Rifftrax of Night of the Living Dead and Twilight. Sadly we didn't see the end of the Twilight one because we headed out, but I had my first Jello-o shots. Don't worry, I didn't overdo it. Drank plenty of water when I got home, got a good night's sleep, and was fine on Sunday :)

So basically I have been totally and utterly social for a couple of weeks... weird!

Dating and More

I got interviewed by Nathalie of Snowbell Jewelry about relationships - notably mine! - hehe It was fun, and the results are up on her blog here :D

Hello, My Name is Inigo Montoya...

My mom and sister came up to visit this weekend, and my sister and I went to see the Princess Bride at a midnight showing on Saturday. I love that movie a little bit more every single time I see it... and I loved it a lot to start with.

There was also much grilling of cool stuff on Saturday for our own little belated Fourth of July (since I was sick for the real thing). I forgot to take any pictures or I'd share the bounty. We made black & tan macaroni and cheese, corn, tomatoes w/provolone and the weirdest watermelon salad ever. It was awesome! We also did a lot of sitting around listening to the XM radio stations we get via DirecTV and rocking out. It was good times. They're hopefully coming back up for an IKEA outing in another couple weeks, so that should be fun!