Houston Rodeo 2013

So, I got one of the best phone calls of my life on Wednesday. I was with Gigi and Grammy and Millie having our girl's day, when Tyler called around noon. He said he was going to lunch with his team and then coming home!! His client filed that day, so it was the end of the big audit. Then he asked if I could get out of going to the Young Women's activity that night and if we had a babysitter for Millie. Yes and yes (thanks to Gigi)! His boss had given him tickets to the rodeo for that night! And they were nice tickets in a box, where they serve you yummy food and everything! I kept saying "No way!" each one getting louder and higher-pitched than the last. So he came home, we dropped Millie off with Gigi, and headed downtown.

Herding us in like cattle

Anything miniature is adorable

But that is not

We HAD to get a famous rodeo cinnamon roll

It did not disappoint!!

Longhorns... it smelled REALLY good in there

Yummy food

Blue Bell ice cream in a little plastic cowboy hat (that I may or may not have rinsed out and brought home for Millie!)

We saw someone get seriously hurt and I thanked Tyler for being an accountant

Dierks Bentley time!!

We had so much fun! I didn't know how many of Dierks Bentley's songs I knew and loved before this. He would not have been my first choice of concerts to go to, but we both really enjoyed it! We both loved the rodeo events too. My favorite was by far mutton bustin'- those kids were adorable. But barrel racing was fascinating and the wagon races were fun too. It was a peek into a world that I really know nothing about, and it was cool to see!

We plan to make the rodeo a tradition as long as we live here. I'm glad that we didn't bring Millie because it was SO loud (I think after my classes on hearing loss I'm a little bit sensitive to that) but we will definitely take her in future years. It was awesome! 

A husband, not a burglar

Last night, I plopped down on the couch with my yarn and crochet hook, turned on an old episode of Parenthood, and settled in for the evening. This is what I usually do after Millie goes to bed, since (as I've definitely mentioned before) Tyler works late and I knew he wouldn't be home for a good 4+ hours. 

At about 8:45, I heard the garage door open! I stood up to make sure that's what it was, since I often mistake the heater coming on for the garage door. Sure enough, the laundry room door started beeping (sure, it works for him but not for me). Tyler walks in the door with the biggest grin I've seen on his face in a while, then laughs as he sees me standing in the kitchen, my scissors in hand, ready to attack! My heart was beating so fast. 

So we pulled our air mattress into the living room and caught up on Suits (after Parenthood was over, of course) and talked about which phone I'm going to get in a few weeks when my contract is up. {Samsung Galaxy SIII or iPhone? Help!}

It was the best Monday night surprise ever. I can't wait until he can come home "early" every night! 

An old phone picture from back when we were engaged

*Side note: He said to me later, "You know I could have totally dominated you even with those scissors, right?" I guess I'm not as intimidating as I'd hoped.

Goal reporting

Gotta be held accountable, right??

Camille's goals:

-No Pinterest in February. I did it! And I may or may not have spent an hour on it this morning catching up. This was a good goal for me and I'm glad I did it. Hopefully going forward I can be more moderate in my pinterest-ing!

-Try 4 new recipes. To be honest, I don't really remember if I completed this or not. I know for sure I did at least 2 new recipes though! I made these potatoes and these Rolo bars. The potatoes I loved and the Rolo bars were not such a hit, won't make them again. I don't always make the effort to try something new, so this was a good goal.

-Do something I've been meaning to do for a long time. Since Steph has been waiting for her blanket since before Millie was born, I thought that should go first! But we decided on a different pattern, inspired by Ann Perkins' blanket on Parks and Rec. I'm kind of loving it.

Are you sick of these photobooth pictures yet? I am!

It's much cuter in real life, and when all the different kinds of squares are done {and sewn together and the ends are woven in} it will look much more cohesive. But the colors are so fun and bright!

Tyler's goals:

-Be the best-looking auditor ever. Still is!

-Work 80+ hours/week. Still happening! He is such a trooper.

-No tinkering with the phone while at home. Does it sound like he had time for tinkering? He definitely accomplished this one. 

Millie's goals:

-Eat as many fruit snacks as humanly possible. She did eat her way through a whole box {okay maybe she had some help}, and one day she somehow got to eat two packets. In my defense, it was the only way to keep her quiet at Church! It was a survival technique.

-Escape Mom's grip and run out into the street. Millie is sad that this didn't happen, but I am not!

-Thwart any efforts to be clean and orderly. Done! Not that this was anything new... but she did a great job.

On to March!!

Book Review: The Happiness Project

For the record, this is the second time I've read this book. I really like it! When I made the goal to read 24 books this year, "The Happiness Project" was the only one that I wrote down specifically (the rest I'm picking as I go). 

What I love about this book is that the author's project is all about being happy in her own life! I never read "Eat, Pray, Love" because I heard it is the exact opposite. I think a big part of life is learning to be happy in your own skin! I don't necessarily agree with all of her goals, but it's a great springboard for setting my own. I love this book and I don't think that will be the last time I read it!

Today

-Poor Millie still had a little fever. 3rd day of this fever bug, whatever it is.

-Despite her sickness, we spent a few hours at the church this morning setting up for New Beginnings. The show must go on, right? Millie was so good until she hit her breaking point. And then we quickly left.

-We got locked out today. For a really long time. I popped some muffins into the oven and then we went across the street to check the mail. We have a little keypad thing on our door where you just type in a code to unlock it instead of carrying around a key, so I never have a house key with me! Very convenient when the keypad works, very inconvenient when it doesn't. I didn't have my cell phone either, since we were just going across the street. The keypad thing decided to continue not working after a gazillion tries and prayers and jigglings. Then the timer for the muffins went off, and I just knew they were going to burn! I remembered that we left a house key with Tyler's parents just in case, but I hoped it wouldn't get that far. After being outside crying and praying and jiggling and trying to break in for a good 35-40 minutes, we gave up and drove the 12 minutes there and the 12 minutes back with the key (insert Hallelujah Chorus here- thank goodness for spare keys and wonderful in-laws). Did you count those minutes? My house smells really bad now. It was probably one of the most stressful hours of my life- the smell of muffins wafting out of the house, Millie crying {her binky was, of course, inside}, the keypad beeping at me, my phone ringing inside, wondering if the house would set fire, the microwave timer beeping, it was just all too much. Not to mention by the time we got back and inside the house I had 20 minutes before I was supposed to leave for New Beginnings! Things like that always happen on the worst possible days, right?

Inedible. I need a pickaxe to get these out.

-New Beginnings was awesome. It was the culmination of a ton of hours from all of the leaders, and we were so happy with how it turned out. And I think the girls were too, which makes it all worth it! 

-It is 10:24 pm and there is no sign of a hubby home anytime soon. Right now our only hours together are spent sleeping, and even then it's less than 5 hours a day. 

I'm going to go eat cookie dough in the bathtub while I watch something mindless. Can this day just be over please?

To end on a more positive note, I love it when Millie "helps" me with laundry. And that she is figuring out how to put clothes on! Watching her learn is my favorite right now.

Dear Daddy,

You requested a picture of us today. You said it was because you miss us, but we suspect it's because you need confirmation that we do, in fact, get dressed for the day sometimes. That's understandable, because you only see us between the hours of midnight and 6 am, when we're in our pajamas! Now you have proof.

We want to say thank you for working so hard for our little family. Sometimes we miss you terribly and secretly wish you could skip work and come play with us! But we're so grateful that you have a job and that you're so good at it. Thanks for being the man in our lives. We love you so much!!

Learning to fold our arms for prayers/church

Love, your girls

5 reasons to be happy

1. Tyler got home from work at 8:15 last night! A little Valentine's Day surprise. So what did we do to celebrate? We let Millie stay up until 9 to play with Daddy, ate frosties and fries, and fell asleep watching Hawaii Five-O. Which, by the way, is exactly my idea of a great Valentine's Day!!

2. Millie is really into giving hugs lately. She's never been a cuddly baby, but if I treat it like a game, I get hugs all day!! It's the best. Also, she's more interested in her dolls. Pushing them around in her shopping cart, stroller, putting them in her rocking chair, etc. It's adorable.

3. I got my first Etsy shop sale this week! P.S. the giveaway on Kerri's blog ends today, winner announced tomorrow. 

4. There are finally some pictures hanging up in our house. I've had major decorating paralysis, but I love seeing something on the walls- makes me feel like the house is really ours!

5. The rain has stopped and the sun is out again. I got to mow the lawn yesterday and Millie is so happy to be able to play outside! That girl needs sunshine, just like her momma.

Happy Friday!

A giveaway

So you heard that I opened an Etsy shop, right?

Well, Kerri at Love Always is having a giveaway- and she (who happens to be my sister-in-law) is giving away one of the hats from my shop! So sweet of her to host this. It's a fun way to spread the word about the shop opening, and to get rid of one of the bajillion hats I have lying around! 

To enter, go HERE. Wow, this is a linky post! The contest ends Friday, with the winner announced on Saturday. There may or may not also be a little discount to anyone who uses the code in Kerri's post this week, but you didn't hear it from me!

Randoms

-I was looking forward to mowing the lawn today (truly I was), but as I was opening the garage to get the mower it started pouring outside. So instead of mowing, I did some sewing. What a poet I am. The rain made Millie take an extra-long nap, so I got to start AND finish a table runner! Sucess!

-We finally figured out my phone situation! I'm so relieved and feel a little bit safer now. And in touch, holy moly. 

-Millie is making the funniest face these days- the smallest-mouthed look of surprise ever. At my own expense, I share the following photo with you:

My face is doing what hers normally does, and she is pretending she has no idea what I'm doing. Sneaky girl.

-The focus is broken on our camera, so until I get my booty in gear and take it in to get fixed, you either get no pictures or lovely photobooth/video camera pictures like the one above! Awesome.

-Thanks to price matching at Wal-Mart, I scored a tub of Blue Bell for only $3.79 last week {this may not be a big deal to some of you, but it's normally $6+ per tub, so that was a deal}. Every night the last few nights, Tyler and I have stuffed our faces! I would feel guilty, except for the fact that we never buy ice cream, let alone Blue Bell, so this is way rare. And yummy.

-Saturday night we had a family date! We went to Gander Mtn. in hopes of finding stuffed animals and other stuff Millie might find cool, like at Cabella's. Unfortunately, it was nothing like what we thought it'd be! But we had fun playing in the tents and showing Millie some freakishly real-looking rubber ducks. And then we got Chili's to go, which is never a bad idea. We treasure our time all together since it's not as frequent these days... we are all very excited for summer!

To brighten this gray day

I dare you not to smile!!