Let's Rodeo!

It's Rodeo Time here in San Antonio, and I am so excited! The San Antonio Rodeo and Livestock Show is in town for a few weeks and we always love to take the kids. Most of the time we try to take them to see the popular kids headliners. They have seen Hilary Duff, Ali and Aj and Morgan's favorite, The Jonas Brothers. But this year we are taking them to see Taylor Swift. She is such a doll, and I actually like most of her music.

Each person in our family has a favorite thing to do at the fair, Morgan likes to ride the rides, while Mason and McKenzie enjoy the animals and the petting zoo. I think Adam's favorite is to watch the Rodeo, but most of all the Extreme Bull riding. And, what is my favorite thing...

Well the funnel cake, of course.

Rodeo Duds:

Old Gringo Boots

-Cheers, Amy

Well, I went off the deep end and chose a color for the Formal living room. I ended up choosing a Chocolate Brown color (SW Fudge Bar) it is very dark and at night almost looks black.
The curtains belonged to our old bedding, I still love the pattern, but are a little too short. I am trying to decided on what to do about curtains, I could either add a contrasting fabric to the existing curtains, or make new ones. I found a toile at Hobby Lobby that would tie in the gold of the sofa and the brown of the walls, or...

I could just go in a total different direction and use blues and browns.

-Cheers, Amy

The Foundation

My parents divorced when I was 5 years old, my mother had married at 19 and like me had a child at 20. My father was an abusive alcoholic and after 5 years of marriage got the courage to leave. We moved back to Ft. Worth and lived with my grandparents for about a year or so, while my mom finished a secretarial program so that she could find a job.
My father was pretty much out of the picture until I was about 7 years old. To this day, I still remember my mother telling me that I was going to spend the summer with my father; I was so excited that I instantly packed a little blue and green suite case and kept in my closet. My father never showed. He gave no explanation, just never called or came.
When I was 10, I received a letter and a picture. The letter was short, and the picture, was of him holding a fish. He was quite the fisherman. He has a passion for the outdoors. After this, we began spending the occasional summers with him. He was still an active alcoholic at that time, therefore this affected our relationship.
They say we tend to repeat the same mistakes as our parents had made. I too was a new mother at the age of 20, unlike my mother though, I did not marry. To be honest it really was not an option. Morgan too, doesn’t have a strong relationship with her father.
One day something had happened and we sat on her bed talking about her father, and for some reason I began to talk about mine, then it hit me. “Morgan,” I told her “Maybe this was Gods way of preparing me for you.”
From that day on that is how I look at “my family history,” it is what it is and it is up to me to change it. Gods knows me in and out and knows that I am truly a stubborn little red headed woman; therefore I think he gives me life lessons. It is up to me to make changes and lay the foundation for my children to have full and happy lives.
-Cheers, Amy

Prayers For Harper

Come Gracious Spirit, Heavenly Dove,

With light and comfort from above.

Be Thou our Guardian, Thou our Guide,

Stay close by Baby Harper’s side. Amen!

-author unknown

Instead for writing from the heart today, I would like to ask for a prayer request for a fellow blogger. Sweet Kelly at Kelly’s Corner gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on Friday, unfortunately she in ICU due to heart complications.
My heart goes out to her and her family.
-Amy

Color Me Happy

Every time I see a decorated room, I am always curious to see the wall colors, make a note, and pick up the swatch when I am that paint store. I have piles and piles of paint swatches in a large zip lock bag that are just laughing at me as we speak. I am constantly getting stuck on a particular color, you think that it would make your choices a little simpler right.
WRONG!!! Who knew that there were so many shades of a “golden brown.”

Do you remember this chair? I am thinking about recovering it also. I have battled back and forth about covering in the leopard print or a linen fabric with chocolate brown embroidery. If I decide to use the leopard on the chair, I could later add dining chairs in the linen.

I also bought upholstery fabric to recover a sofa I had bought a resale shop. I chose a golden brown tight weave chenille hoping it would be a good child friendly fabric. And, the golden brown should hide just about everything, right?
-Cheers, Amy

Who am I

My parents had divorced when I was about 5 and soon after that we moved to Ft. Worth with my grandparents. In the early 80’s my mom met and married a man whom was in the oil business. They packed us (my sister and I) up in the car and moved us to the small West Texas town of Abilene.
Abilene is known for the 3 faith based universities and therefore referred to as the “Bible Belt of Texas.” My parents occasionally attended a local Baptist church on Sunday mornings, but not on a regular bases. This particular church still carries the same southern values, everyone still dresses in their Sunday best and is very social, since we were a small lower middle class family, I never really felt like I “fit in.” I still remember going to Sunday school class and having to read the bible story in front of my peers, and being embarrassed because I was never a strong reader. This really did not help to develop my relationship with God.
By the time I turned 13, my life had gone down a different path. My Mother and Step Father divorced, my grandmother, whom I was very close to died and I began to spiral out of control. My teenage years were not good ones and it is truly by the Grace of God that I even survived.
At 19 I became pregnant with my daughter Morgan and at 20 I was a single mother on food stamps, trying to survive. I remember returning to the same church I had attended as a child, just after I had Morgan. I just sat there in the church pew with tears in my eyes threw the service, once again lost and ashamed.
I later met my husband Adam and we married over a year later. We will be celebrating our 9th year together this Friday. I truly believe leaving Abilene was the best thing for me, in a since leaving the past behind you.
You might be asking yourself, why is she sharing all of this very personal information on her blog, at this time? Well, I believe that your past doesn’t define who you are, but are “Gods little obstacles“ that help you become who you are, these life lessons have laid the foundation for the person that I have become today.
I am truly a “work in process,” I am learning things as I go. I am trying to be the best woman, wife, and parent that I can be by learning from my own mistakes. I must admit I truly have to stop and laugh at myself from time to time though, because I do seem to handle little things differently that some of my friends, which you might see in the weeks to come. But hopefully still learning as I go.
-Cheers, Amy

From The Heart

This morning I sat in total silence drinking a cup of coffee, which is very rare for me. Adam and I went to an event last night and the kids spent the night with his parents. The TV was off and Adam was still asleep. Total silence.

As I stared out the window I thought about the direction my life was going in, who I am and where I’ve been. And I thought a lot about the challenges that I am facing right now as a mother of three children. Since I have large gaps in ages, I have very different challenges with each one of my children, but I guess since each child has their own personality, I guess this is normal.

I also thought about my own personal challenges. Who I am and how to organize my life? I not just talking about my house hold items that are lying around, but the day to day challenges that I am faced with. I am questioning my day to day actives that make me a better Christian woman, wife, and parent.

This is where my blog comes in, I decided to organize my blog a little. I would like to write a series of post on Monday’s that are a little more personal that what I normally write. I will share a little more about me and my life and probably a little too much about parenting and the obstacles that I am facing. I guess it is a little more, “From the Heart.”
-Cheers, Amy

House Goals for The New Year

One of my goals this year is to work on the outside of our house. We live in an older neighborhood where most of the houses are the typical 50 year old ranch style house. For the past 5 years that we have lived in this neighborhood we are seeing younger families moving in and remolding their house.

One of the things I would like to do is add a metal roof, they are quite expensive, but I hear that they have a bit more life span than you typical roof.

Here’s the other dilemma, we need to add a bedroom and have thought of converting our garage into a master bed and bathroom. Therefore it would bump out the front of our house. I would like to add a large front porch to unify the addition and the rest of the house.
My inspiration are the houses in Fredericksburg and their old large porches. I would love to add a porch swing and sit there while I wait for the school bus in the afternoons, or while the kids play in the yard.

So what do you think?
-Cheers, Amy

I must confess I really haven’t been myself lately. It took me a little longer to put my Christmas stuff up this year, and it has taken me even longer to take it down. But slowly, I am getting it done.

On New Year’s Eve, I had to run to Target for a few odds and ends, I was on my last diaper, so I just had to go. Morgan wanted to see if they still had a skirt that she wanted to wear to her New Years Eve party. I explained that it was to be a quick trip, because Mason had not taken a nap yet.

Mason of course was fussing and wanted to run around the store, but we grabbed the diapers and Morgan wanted to look at the clothes. I tried to carry Mason for awhile, but he is getting a little too heavy to carry him for long periods of time, so by then, I told Morgan that we need to go and I was getting in line. As I stepped toward the checkout line this spandex wearing, 20 year old cut in front of me. Of course she cart full, I just stopped and got in line behind her. By this time Mason was back in the cart, crying and I was doing my best to keep him distracted, but nothing was working.

Now, let me stop and explain to you, what I am about to share with you, I am not proud of. I am most normally a very polite person, but on this day I’m not sure what came over me. It might have been when the spandex wearing girl in front of me had two transactions, or Mason screaming for twenty minutes, but when the cashier and the 20 something girl just sat their chatting about what they were doing to that night I must have lost self control.
I hear a very rude voice say, “Oh come on, I’m ready to go!” I couldn’t believe I had said it. The spandex girl and the cashier just looked at me in amazement; the people behind me chuckled a little.

I said nothing.

When she began to check me out, I apologized to the checker, and explained that I didn’t mean to be rude. While walking out to the car, for some reason I couldn’t stop laughing. Not that I think rudeness is funny, but in the disbelief that I had actually blurted out something like that. Morgan on the other hand didn’t find it so funny.
I later called my mom to tell her what I had done, her response:

“Wow Amy, you turned 35 and now you will say anything.”

Oh no, it this the case? Will I have my picture posted on the door of shopping centers across the nation warning every one of my rudeness, I hope not. Or, is my mind already going that I forget to “Think before I speak.” I’m not sure; I guess I am having a little trouble this year. And it’s only the 6th of January!

-Cheers, Amy