Few weekend pictures

Low-key was the name of the game this weekend. I worked on my tan. Betsy did some laps in the kiddie pool. I re-organized the kitchen. I did some sewing. Betsy bumped up to two meals/containers of baby food per day. Ben ran errands with his parents and got ready for a fishing trip coming up. We went to Austin for lunch with JD and for Ben to get fitted for an upcoming wedding. Ben's parents came over for dinner last night. AND!!! It's Ben's last week of school before he stays home for the summer with Betsy. Here are a handful of pics from the super-relaxing weekend.

Happy Bets in the jumperoo while I sewed on Sunday.

Three generations of Bralleys, Grandpa, Bets and Ben.


Maddie snuggling her friend.
My finger is better, stitch and band aid free!

Betsy: Sunbathing Beauty

Betsy loves her new kiddie pool. She was a little nervous for the first few minutes but once she got comfortable with the water she seemed to enjoy it. Here are a few pictures of her fun in the sun the past couple days!
Bets in her adorable swim shorts, thanks Tiff-Ray!









What Betsy does while Shannon works on her tan.

Swimming sweetie. She's started 'herding' her ducks together. It's adorable!

Betsy sits!

EJB has been sitting for a couple weeks, but I finally drug out the camera to document her newest trick. Betsy can sit (and fall). Luckily she does this hand-bracing-forward-roll type fall that typically results in her laying in some uncomfortable looking position. She's sitting unassisted for about a minute at a time, or until something drags her attention away (MADISON!) and she tries to turn around and ends up falling over. She's so excited about this! We praise her and smile and she smiles back and knows she is doing something good. I think she's very close to pulling herself up into a sitting position. She's been doing her sit-ups and push-ups (nope, not kidding). What a big girl we have!

Organization is beautiful

I wish I had taken before pictures of my disastrous closet. Here's the after. I love having it all so organized.

The two small Tupperware containers hold my scrap booking stuff. The large container holds: wrapping supplies in the top drawer, ribbons and stationary in the second drawer, note pads, disposable utensils, cups and plates and other party supplies.


Our filing is caught up. Hey! There's the cover to my sewing machine too!


I'm admittedly a box junkie. Only with electronics though!


Diaper wreath making supplies and more boxes...

Tagged, 8 things

8 things I am looking forward to....
- My Mom's next trip to visit us in Texas
- Ben and Shannon's weekend getaway in Dallas (in July)
- Seeing what my brilliant little sister makes of her life
- Betsy's first words...and subsequent chatter
- Ben getting out for the summer!
- The pineapple I'm going to eat with my lunch today
- getting past the audit we're soon to experience at work!
- JD and Tiffany's wedding in December

8 things I did yesterday....
- worked 9 hours
- went to the post office
- Went grocery shopping
- caught up with my Mom via the phone
- watched a movie
- ate spaghetti for dinner
- played with Betsy for hours
- consoled my schnauzer who did NOT like last night's thunderstorm

8 things I wish I could do...
- cook
- think before I speak
- speak another language
- find an awesome teaching job
- run a marathon
- I wish I could paint well (ie the walls in my house)
- grow a money tree in my back yard
- have wisdom in difficult times

8 things shows I watch...
- Biggest Loser
- So You Think You Can Dance
- Big Bang Theory
- How I Met Your Mother
- Entourage
- 18 kids and counting
- Jon and Kate plus 8

8 Friends I tag...
- Christy C
- Miranda
- Lisa
- Tiff-Ray
- Tiff-Bo
- Lara
- Beth
- Abbey

Long update for the long weekend

I think every weekend should be extra long. Because I worked a half-day on Friday it felt like I had a four day weekend. In fact, as I sat last night recollecting what I had accomplished this weekend I couldn't really remember Friday afternoon (at which point I realized it was the Vicodin I was taking for my injured hand that caused me to forget that evening entirely). Here's what we did this weekend:

Friday after work I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles and got a new drivers license. This took two hours, bah. I picked the baby up from Grandpa's, visited with JD, Mary and Jimbo then headed home for a pain pill and a nap. My hand was throbbing. Luckily Betsy was on the same page and she snuggled in for a nice long siesta with Mommy. We took it easy around the house Friday night. A couple Ben works with came over with their sweet three year old daughter (who fell asleep in my lap) while we all caught up.

Saturday we woke up, watched a movie, played with Betsy all morning, and did our shopping to get ready for our get-together. Pictures of 'the twins'.



We let Betsy 'air out' to avoid the dreaded diaper rash she was starting to develop. Her baby bootie is a total cutie.


Saturday afternoon Ben played golf with a few of his work friends after which they came back to the house for drinks and to relax on the back porch. I got ready for our barbecue on Sunday, setting the tables, arranging the flowers and cleaning up around the house. Saturday night I began a task I'd been putting off for many months: cleaning out our office closet and catching up on our filing! It's basically been our 'catch all' since we moved in this house a year ago.

tables and flowers


Sunday Betsy and I slept in, I did some sewing work then we took a nap so she'd be in the mood to party. Everyone came over between 4 and 5. We had sixteen of our family and friends over to celebrate Memorial Day. It was so much fun.

Our menu:

appetisers
cream cheese with jalapeno pepper jelly and crackers
jalapeno cheese and bacon wraps (Ben's specialty, everyone loves these and next time we'll make 100 instead of 50!)

dinner
hamburgers
hot dogs
bratwurst
chips
green bean casserole
braised carrots
fruit salad

desserts
birthday cake
red velvet cake
apple pie
cookies

Uncle JD the birthday boy!

Red Velvet cupcakes

Uncle JD's birthday cake


Ben bought a badmittion set for the party. It was a huge success a great time was had by all P.S. now he expects ME to play badmittion, shall we take bets on when my first badmittion related injury will happen? Our last guests left around ten and Ben and I picked up the house and settled in on the couch for a while to catch up before heading to bed.

Betsy and Ryder partying it up. They were pretty into each other.




Sunday I woke up and tackled the rest of the closet and filing. I worked about three hours, then went for lunch and drinks and girl time with Tiff-Ray (hands down, most relaxing part of the weekend). So I made it home spent the rest of the evening filing until about 9 pm when I had to do a few sewing projects after Betsy had been put to bed. In all I spent at least eight hours on the closet and filing and Ben spent good quality time with the sweet girl.

On a happy note I didn't have to take anything for my finger yesterday! The pain was minimal and I can even type normally today. I'll be taking out my stitches at some point this weekend and I'll be as good as new :)

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's back to the hospital I go.

*warning graphic content*

I'm never touching ANYTHING in the kitchen again. If you read the old blog you remember the tale of the great house fire of 2007. To summarize, 25K worth of damage *thank the Lord for renters insurance* and a six week stay with my in-laws *thank the Lord for gracious, understanding in-laws* and Ben and I decided it was best for Shannon to NOT cook.



Last night after Bets, Ben and I web-cammed with Granny I started to make myself a sandwich. I was cutting a piece of left-over french bread (those carbs are deadly!) and I took a chunk of my left pointer finger off. YEOW!!

Ben jumped up and wrapped a kitchen towel around my finger and I said immediately "this needs stitches". He wanted to wait a few minutes to make sure it wasn't just a shallow cut that would stop bleeding on its own (nope). So we loaded Betsy up, dropped her off at my in-laws and drove to Temple to get treated. This is a little pathetic, don't you think? I mean, no cooking, OK. I can't even make a flipping sandwich without bleeding?! LAME.

I cut my finger at about 7:30 in the evening. We dropped Betsy off, drove 20 minutes to the hospital, got treated, drove twenty minutes back to our neighborhood, picked Betsy up and made it home before 10 pm. That's pretty impressive for an ER visit (I would know). We also had a great doctor and nurse this time around, and both agreed I needed to work on my story..."You cut your finger slicing bread?" Ben's adaptation was something about me in a bar fight breaking a bottle and slicing my finger. WAY cooler. Also, while stitching me up the doctor kept saying what dainty little hands and fingers I have. Actually, right now I have nine dainty fingers and a Shrek finger.

Being the cool kids we are, we broke out the camera to document my first unplanned stitches.

First the doctor injected my nerves with numbing solution. That was a by far the most painful part of the experience.


The shot from HELL

My reaction to the shot

Ben's reaction to the story of how this happened

Shannon getting a tetanus shot

Post bandaging

Gangster pose

My reaction to Ben telling me to stay out of the kitchen. "Don't tell me what to do!"



And FYI, Betsy thinks my bandaged finger is a new toy. As I dressed her this morning she grabbed it and squeezed with all her might. NOT COOL.