Snow Day

It's official...today can actually, really be called a "Snow Day". We have had continuous light snow fall for the last 15 hours or so and up until a few minutes ago it was still coming down. We still have not left the house since we came home Monday night and since they cancelled the hockey game we planned on going to tonight we have no intention of leaving anytime soon.

Today though, we did at least venture outside the house...even though it was for only 10 minutes and not much further than the front door step.

First thing we did was measure the snow...

and according to our calculations as seen on eye level, we measured 5 inches of snow!!!
Next thing on the agenda...snow collection for our snow ice cream.


Finally got enough....

And of course we couldn't come back inside until after he made a snow angel. And in keeping with our stay at home pj days....he does still have his pjs on underneath his snow pants and jacket. :)

After we came back inside and warmed up with hot chocolate and brownies we made our snow ice cream. We used our big bowl of snow, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of milk and a lot of vanilla (probably 5-6 tablespoons.) It was DELICIOUS!!!

Sadly this picture was taken AFTER I dropped my camera. :( I think I broke the lens...it wasn't taking pictures properly or using the auto focus. I'm going to have to try my other lens to see if it still works correctly.

Hope everyone is staying warm!!

Our Special Someone...How it all Began

Hopefully sometime in the near future I will be changing the header/title of our blog. It will no longer need to say "Just the 2 of Us"....it will be switched to "Just the 3 of Us" :) About 5 months ago, we added a super special guy to our life and we couldn't be happier.

Let me introduce you to my boyfriend, Jason....

And yes, it does feel extremely weird to be a mother and almost 32 years old and say that I have a "boyfriend." It sort of makes me feel like I am back in highschool again....which by the way, is ironic because Jason and I actually DID go to highschool together. In fact, we even graduated the same year together. The funny thing is, back in the day we never even said two words to each other. (Just in case you are wondering, our class wasn't all that big, maybe 400.) We did know of each other but we just hung around different groups. He was a shy, football player that always hung out with the guys and I was a golfer who was always tied up with a boyfriend. In our four years of high school, we never had one class together, lockers were never near each other and we both parked on opposite sides of the school building...so basically we just never crossed paths...until 12 years later...Thanks to Facebook!!

It all started last March I had made a status update about introducing Brayden to the 80's movie Space Camp and Jason commented how that was a classic 80's movie. So of course I had to do a lil FB stalking and I noticed he doesn't really comment on anyones status' so of course I felt extra special. :) Then I noticed on his profile it said he was single...but I couldn't imagine how/why so I wasn't totally convinced he was single. Then I noticed where he lives...Rogers, AR so my detective skills got to work on yahoo maps and I discovered we were 5 hours apart..... 5 hours!!! Keep in mind the most I have been in a car since my parents moved closer to me is probably about 3 hours and that just about did me in...so again I had to ponder the 5 hours. Then I took another look at his profile pic and decided, yeah it was totally worth pursuing. 5 hours isn't really that long right?!?

So over the next few months I would think about him often and check out his page. I noticed he wasn't really all that active- no status updates, no comments, no new pictures, etc... so it had me thinking maybe he really was single. Then back in May he made a comment on my graduation status/photos and again on my birthday in June. Each time, my mind would begin to visualize what life would be like if we were together. (I know that sounds cRaZy.) Then July 4th came around and he sent me a Happy 4th of July message. I thought it was extra special because he included Brayden in it too. Of course I was on Cloud 9 and replied back to him wishing him a safe trip to Houston to visit his family. Since he initated the communication I was super excited and again started thinking maybe he really is single. But being a single mom of a 5 yr old, my self confidence wasn't always the highest so I tried to convince myself he was "just being nice" and nothing more than that. But of course that didn't stop me from thinking about him...and let me just say I have a lot of thinking time during summer break. :)

Then August came around and Money magazine voted for the Top 10 cities to live in. McKinney (where I live) was voted #5 and then I saw Rogers, AR voted as #10. Perfect conversation starter!! So I emailed him the link and told him that I was thinking about him since both of our cities made the Top 10 list and that maybe we should share our cities with one another. He replied that he had actually just read the article before he saw my email and that sounded like a great idea. We had a lil more small talk back and forth but then it fizzled out. Jason will be the first to admit he's not always the best conversationalist and I think neither of us wanted to admit we had a crush on one another in fear of rejection. Then a few weeks later as Brayden and I were frequenting the neighborhood pool we befriended one of our neighbors and her boyfriend. They were telling me how the boyfriend was going to be traveling back home and I asked where he lived...believe it or not....he lived in Rogers, AR!! Talk about a small world!! I definitely took it as a "sign." If they were able to have a successful long distance relationship between McKinney and Rogers, why couldn't I at least give it a try. So of course I really started visualizing our relationship.

Then Labor Day came around and I was pleasantly surprised by an email from Jason wishing us a Happy Labor Day...so then we had a lil back and forth conversation and I noticed now was my chance to finally admit I had a secret "crush" on him....so I took the plunge and told him. Then I anxiously awaited for his reply. Luckily the feelings were mutual...and the rest as they say is history. :)

Jason still lives in Arkansas but is hoping to find a job in the Dallas area very soon. I know 5 months doesn't seem like that long of a time to get to know each other, but it has been a very natural relationship and we both feel like we have already been together much, much longer. Thanks to todays technology (Skype, email, high phone bills, etc..) we are able to stay in constant communication and probably communicate more than dating couples that live in the same town. We are both more than ready to be together on a daily basis rather than weekends only. It still amazes us both how we use to live 5 minutes apart from one another and never even talked and now we drive 5 hours just to see each other on the weekends....for less than 48 hours. Hopefully one day, sooner than soon, that day will come where we can be together full time. :)

Here is our first "family" pic taken at the Texas State Fair back in October.
Brayden ABSOLUTELY ADORES Jason and he can't wait for him to be apart of our life full time too.

On another note, stay tuned for more "back" dated posts...I'm really starting to get the hang of blogging again and I promise they won't be so wordy. :)

Ice Days

Ok, I know it has been awhile since I have posted...about 8 months to be exact. Way to long!! I actually just noticed that I have a couple of post from over the summer that I started but did not finish so I will work on finishing those up as well and post those too. Brayden and I have had something very exciting happen to us in the last five months that I will share in a new post too. Now you might be wondering, how I have all this time to catch up on our blog....it's called Dallas' Ice Storm 2011. :)

In my school district we are lucky to get 1 snow day, 2 if we are really lucky, but having 3 in a row is just unheard of! Well tomorrow will actually be our 4th snow day in a row!! It's actually due to ice and not snow, but either way it is absolutely unheard of in this area!! Let's just say Brayden and I are LOVING EVERY SECOND OF IT!!

So what do you when you have 4 days off of school? Well I would love to say I have cleaned out and reorganized every room and closet in my house, but let's be honest, that's not really "fun". I like my friend, Lauren's philosophy.... Normally we would be at work and the cleaning and organizing wouldn't be getting done anyway so it's ok to take these snow days and just enjoy them since we are supposed to be at work. :) So what we have done is....

** Stayed in our pjs all day long- no point getting dressed when you can't go anywhere, right?!?. :)
** Watched SEVERAL movies thanks to Uverse OnDemand
** We caught up on all of our DVR recordings
** Read books- I am enjoying extra time with Apolo Ohno since I don't normally get time to read during the week. I highly recommend his book, Zero Regrets: Be Greater Than Yesterday. It is very motivational and a great read!! Right now Amazon is offering it for only $13.39 hardcover with free shipping.
** We have played Wii until we used up all the batteries then we switched over to playing his new Dsi. We can't get enough of Mario.
** I worked on my taxes.
**Baked some brownies and other yummy meals.
** We have worked hard on earning some more Swagbucks. Brayden is even addicted to it now. :) It's only the 3rd day of the month and we already have another $5 Amazon giftcard on the way. They have swagbuck tv and games that he likes to watch/play. I told him that we could use our amazon giftcards we earn to apply to a new Xbox360 Kinect that he is wanting. So he is all about trying to earn those Swagbucks. :)

Whew! Now that it is all listed like that it sounds like we have been pretty busy. (just kidding) :)

Personally I dont quite understand getting "cabin fever". Brayden and I are enjoying every second of this unexpected winter vacation break. :) Maybe, just maybe...tomorrow's agenda might include some cleaning/reorganizing but I'm not making any promises. :)

On a side note-
Tomorrow's forecast: high of 28 degrees and a good chance of snow
The weekend: 46/49.... just a lil warm up for the SuperBowl. :)
Monday: back down to a high of 35 degrees with a light wintery mix... another possible snow day?!? We shall see. :)

60th Birthday Celebration

We recently celebrated 60 wonderful years of my mom's life. To make her birthday extra special, my dad, two sisters, and I had a few suprises up our sleeves for this milestone. :)

First, my dad surprised my mom by flying my middle sister in from Denver, CO. She had no idea until both of my sisters and grandma surprised her as she was volunteering at church. Then, the next surprise began, they "kidnapped" her to bring her to McKinney for a fun girls night out. She was NOT expecting it AT ALL!!

First on the agenda for the girls night out was a painting class at Sip n Doodle in downtown McKinney. We had a GREAT time!! It was something new and we all agreed that we can't wait to do it again. Here are a few pictures from our fun adventure:

Mom just starting her background.

My oldest sister and grandma, hard at work.

Mom a lil further along on her painting.

My middle sister and I were painting right next to each other and although we had two completely different paintings... you would have never been able to tell based on our background, they were almost identical:

All of our final products-

One of the things we really liked about painting at Sip n Doodle we were each able to choose our own painting to fit our own style. I was pretty impressed with each of our masterpieces. Looking forward to doing it again!!

After painting, we headed over to one of my favorite downtown Mexican restaraunts, Aparicios. Then they all headed back to my parents house because I had to "work" the next day (on Saturday). Little did my mom know, one of our other surprises, was I would actually be able to spend Saturday with the family too. So Saturday, we surprised her with 1)me and then 2) my dad and sister collaborated with my mom's Bunco Group to have them switch Bunco from Monday night to Saturday afternoon. It was a great "surprise Bunco party" with many of my mom's friends and my sisters, grandma and I were able to play as well. Guess who was the Bunco Queen....your's truely, of course. :)

After Bunco, we went back to my parents house for more family time. My sister brought her Xbox 360 Kinect, so we were able to have fun as a family challenging each other in Dance Central and in Kinect Adventures . SO much fun!!! Then my brother in law and nephew joined us for the festivities, so our family was complete. It has been waaaaaay too long, since we have all been together as a family.

After a pizza dinner, we had an amazing strawberry cake that my brother in law brought in from Oklahoma City along with homemade icecream, courtesy of my dad and Jason. It was all delicious!!She opened her presents and then we played the dice game, Farkle as a family. Farkle is a great family game that even Brayden could play along with us.

We had such an amazing day and weekend!! I think we definitely were able to pull off some great surprises for my mom. And hopefully next time we wont have to wait as long for us all to be together again. :)

Happy 60th Birthday Mom!!

Our Summer Fun

Our summer summed up in pictures...

First off for summer break, Brayden continued his ice skating lessons. Then he didn't want to continue with the second session because he realized it interferred too much with his "social" schedule. He was missing out on playdates with the neighbors on Monday nights and he just couldn't bare to do that anymore. Life's tough when you're 5! On the bright side before he quit, he did pass the basic ice skating lessons and was able to advance to pre-hockey...his original goal. Hopefully soon he will want to get back into it. :)


Of course we got a LOT of swimming in over the summer...

Brayden with his neighbor girlfriend. :)

We did so much swimming that he even got a Swimmer's Ear Infection...which was no fun at all!! We had to make a special trip from grandmas and Vacation Bible School to go see the doctor.



We did make it over to watch an interview with a couple of the Allen American hockey players as they did a radio talk show. Brayden enjoyed getting their autograph and I think they enjoyed using his squiggly pen. :)

Then they had a buy 1 item, get 1 item free so we had to stock up on a couple of miniature goalie sticks.

This summer we also celebrated my 31st birthday and Father's Day with my parents. They happened to fall on the same day this year.

After a lot of anticipation, we had to go see Toy Story 3 in 3D. We both LOVED it!!

We also made it out to a McKinney Marshall baseball game. It is our area summer collegiate league.

Of course we spent a lot of time at the lake.

Boat naps are the best...


We survived the heat at a few of the FC Dallas games... Brayden enjoyed them SO much we got season tickets for this upcoming season.



Brayden went with me for the first time as I got a pedicure. He was definitely treated like a prince getting to sit in the massaging chair.

4th of July and Brayden looking up at the fireworks...

and finally a summer picture of just the two of us.....

We had a great relaxing summer....Can't wait to see what this upcoming summer has in store for us. :)

My Graduation

Another exciting event we had in May was my graduation from grad school. For the last eighteen months I have been working on my Master of Education in Teacher Leadership via online courses. I can't tell you enough how excited I am to be finally be done with assignments, midterms and final exams!!

This was a fun mini trip that we are able to spend with my parents. Believe it or not, this was Brayden's first time to actually stay in a hotel....5 years old and he had never stayed in a hotel before. He was beyond excited and loving every second of it, especially the elevator! He kept calling the hotel, the "show in tell" and by the end of the weekend was wanting us to move into one. On Sunday, we drove down a little further to Port Arthur, TX (close to Galveston) so Brayden could see the ocean for his first time. He LOVED the waves! I wish we could have stayed longer and actually enjoyed the ocean but unfortunately we had a 6 hour drive ahead of us.
It didn't take long before he wanted to switch into his swimsuit and try out his "surfing pose."

I can't wait to go back and spend more time enjoying the ocean and beach....hopefully we will make it down there again this summer. :)