Meet our Neighbor

This is our back neighbor. We have seem him many times but never up close. He is very skittish and doesn't seem to like people. Hopefully he will warm up to us.

I love having him in our backyard. We get to enjoy the view without the work.

Look how handsome.

Books to blog about

Reading has ALWAYS been a big part of my life. I was the kid that asked for dictionaries and encyclopedias for Christmas. While Sister played with dolls and Barbies, I tried to memorize the Ls in the Thesaurus. When I met Neil, I met my match! If there is anything Neil spends money on its books but we have VERY different reading tastes so here are a few of MY favorite books in our library.

This book was actually given to me by one of my college health students after I taught a chapter about body image issues. It is a book that every woman should have in their back pocket. It speaks on all forms of women's body image issues, as they relate to culture. But, every topic is built on a foundation of scripture. It speaks to single women, married women, young, old and in between. Even if you feel body image is not one of your vices, it can serve as a basis for understanding and helping other women and girls in your life and what they might be going through. For only $12 you can have a great girls group discussion.



You may already know, but Jody Picoult is my favorite author. I have read all of her books and while many of them are great, this is one of my favs. I really appreciate the research that the does prior to writing her books. This one takes place on an Amish farm so in order to be accurate, she actually spent weeks on the farm! I learned a lot about the Amish community but it also had a great story line - infant death on an Amish farm...where did it come from? who is responsible? who is protecting? Will US laws or Amish laws prevail?

Some other good ones are Keeping the Faith, My Sisters Keeper, and Perfect Match.

Baylor proud

We are


We are playing in the elite eight this evening @ 4:00pm
This is the first time in 60 years that Baylor has made it this far.
We are hoping for a win for a trip to the FINAL FOUR!

Go BEARS!!

Today the Baylor Bears are making history by playing in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament....in case you have been hiding under a rock!




Waco is buzzing with excitement,partially because this team has been built from the bottom up and partially because we have had high hopes this year and they are delivering. Buses and caravans and roadtrips are being made to Houston today and hopefully we we feel the full advantage of home court advantage. Please keep all those traveling in your prayers today!

And, if your team is out....we could use all the support we can get.

The game is at 6:30ish today so please do not expect us to answer the phone until its over-thanks :)

fixer uppers

While the guys were working on the porch Mom and I had a few projects of our own. First, we finished painting the living room and stair case. We don't have pictures of that but lets just agree that it looks great.

The second project was a chair fixer-upper.

I found this chair on the side of the road.

i liked the legs so i put it in the backseat and drove it home.

I removed some rust and spray painted it with RUSTOLEUM paint. It prevents rust from reappearing.

Before After

It sat outside for five months before I ran into the PERFECT fabric, at Wal-Mart of all places.

UPDATE: I have gotten a few comments about the beautiful fabric... Walmart, I know! It was only $3.00 a yard!!! I have looked for it ever since and I have NEVER seen it again :( I kick myself for not buying more.


So mom and I headed to the store to buy plywood, batting, and staples to finish it. We are so proud of our little chair that serves no purpose! Here is the finished project.

The third project was inspired by a hotel in San Antonio.
After looking all over, the best price I got were these from West Elm. 3 for $44.oo
So I decided to try my own. We took a 4X4 and cut it into blocks, stained them, put picture hangers on the back and put them up.
We ended up with 12 for $14.75.

They came out looking pretty close and with a little more character.


We added candle holders and candles and put them in our dinning room.
I love the way they turned out and even Neil likes them!



Our last project was a footstool for our new rocking chairs.
We found the stool at a garage sale for $5 and recovered it with burlap.
Burlap is a good outdoor fabric and we stenciled our address on it for a little personality.

There is not much to it so here is the final edition.

What I didn't take pictures of was the Hobby Lobby trips with Diane and Mom. They went shopping for her daughters wedding flowers, they came home, and made three bridesmaids bouquets, a maid of honor bouquet, a throw away bouquet, and a bride bouquet! And mom cleaned my windows!

Needless to say, it was a very busy week but I was so glad to be so productive!

Thanks Mom, I had lots of fun!

Linked at:

Spring "Break" projects

One of the most appreciated weeks in a student/teacher's year is Spring Break. This year we decided to stay home to build a porch on our house. We originally asked Dad Moran to help since he seems to always be doing construction anyways. The week began with Neil and Dad working side by side but by the end of the week we had a full house. Randy Briones of Briones Audio & Video out of Austin, a close family friend came in to help with the electrical work and uncle Rick came in to help with the roofing.

We could not show our thanks for all the super hard work that they did on our little house. We did not expect to have so much help and we will patiently wait for our turn to repay the kindness they have shown us. Thank you!
It was fun to see the progress as the days went on and while we are not totally finished, the structural work has been done. All thats left is the details and paint. For now, enjoy the pictures and I will be sure to post a finished one later.

The first post to go up! No turning back now.

Beginning of day two.

Neil hard at work.

The Roof is covered at this point.
The killer? Angles!!

The end of the week. The shingles are put on. We matched them to our current shingles and it looks great.
(excuse the bricks under the window. They are settling some glue)

Sometime this month we will finish adding the decorative columns, gate, and finish painting.

We have already been able to enjoy the shade and the perfect weather and we can't wait to spend more time there.

You might be wondering what everyone else was doing. Well, we had a few spectators.

He was lost in our yard but we directed him towards the pond next door.

Rexx loved being out there. The noise didn't even bother him. I think he got a sunburn too.

As for mom and I, we had a few projects of our own. They will be featured on our next post.

Hope everyone had/has a great Spring Break!

Girls Weekend

I got lucky this weekend with a visit from my sister and cousin. They drove all the way here, by themselves, just to spend time with me! I felt so special. Of course that put a little bit of stress to show them a good time but little Waco has so much to offer. We hit up all the antique shops and boutiques, we went for a walk and talked all night! It was a wonderful weekend with the girlies! Its so weird seeing them all grown up and talking about grown up things but I'm sure it was weirder for them :)

ME & Markie and our head wraps from SPICE

The girls on our walk

Meg on the walk - I love my neighborhood!

She wanted one of her "good side"

Thanks for coming to my little town girls.....next time, its the lake! Love you

waco winter

yes, we have a winter....sometimes.

When most people think of winter, they think snow. I think 40 degrees! Sometimes we forget that there are parts of the country (i.e. Iowa) that have been shoveling snow for months but we always hope that it will snow here. Most kids that live in Texas have NEVER seen snow. I was one of them! Now that I am married, I get to see snow at least once a year, hopefully. I love the snow. Its still new to me. I can play for a couple of days and leave it in Iowa. Perfect. No shoveling. No driving.

Well, we were pleasantly surprised this week to get some snow...while the sun is up...that stuck!
It is a rarity but look how beautiful!

view from our front door

Its not IOWA snow but it was wonderful for WACO! Obviously everyone in town was excited, including me. It warranted a phone call to my parents, an email to my friend in Kansas, and pictures!

24th Birthday

I had a great birthday! We were able to spend it with my family in San Antonio. I also recieved so many birthday cards and gifts in the mail and they ALL made it ON MY DAY! Good job! Overall I felt so loved and I am very thankful for all the love in my life.

Neil surprised me with his gift. It was so thoughtful. He got me like 10 cards (all reminding me that I am an old lady compared to him), a birthday girl tiara, and a SET OF ROCKING CHAIRS to grow old in together.

(notice the wrapping paper...cute)

all the cards.

The rocking chairs have to be put together so I'll post when they are done.

My 23rd year was a great one. So many changes and huge life events and a bunch of growth.

My 23rd year in review

1. GOT MARRIED
2. BOUGHT A HOUSE
3. LIVED IN TEXAS WITHOUT AIR CONDITIONING
IN THE SUMMER
4. STARTED A BLOG
5. WENT SLEDDING
6. STARTED MY MASTER'S DEGREE
7. GOT A JOB AT THE ADVOCACY CENTER
8. MET THE OHIOIANS
9. HOSTED MY FIRST THANKSGIVING
10. HONEYMOONED IN ST. MAARTEN
11. BOUGHT A "NEW" CAR
12. VISITED THE HOME TOWN OF EMITT KELLY...look it up
13. WATCHED NEIL CROSS THE STAGE
14. HAD TWO WEDDING SHOWERS
15. BECAME A COLLEGE PROFESSOR
16. GOT STRANDED IN OKLAHOMA
17. SPENT CHRISTMAS IN A HOTEL ROOM

WOW, it was a great year! Hope the next is just as enjoyable.
Thanks everyone for a great Birthday

Cheapest Kitchen Redo

We are slowly working on the house and with my VERY open schedule, it has given me a lot of free time to .... PAINT! I started with the kitchen because I wanted to get rid of this wallpaper.


We decided on a not-so-common color.....BROWN. I really like it. I looks like CHOCOLATE! But then the counters didn't look so good. They were a blue laminate but since we don't want too spend too much money, I looked at other options and found paint to be a decent option. Mom Shanks mentioned that her in-laws painted hers and I found some helpful blogs so I went for it.

BEFORE

AFTER

I sponge painted the counter tops to look like granite and match the brown. It was then sealed with three layers of polyurethane. Here is a close up of the "granite"

It has held up so far. It's temporary and only cost about $75! Totally worth it.

Honeymoon

I know its been awhile but I finally found the pictures of our honeymoon. We went to St. Maarten and it was very interesting. The small island was split down the middle and half is owned by the French and the other half is owned by the Dutch. That means there are two forms of money, two different types of license plates, even two different spellings for Sint Martin/St. Maarten.

This was the view from our back porch. We were about 20 yards from the ocean! We were blessed with great weather the whole week. Even the misty rain was perfect in the morning.



This was another island. St. Barths, and St. Lucia were within view also. Neil thought he could swim there. He couldn't. So we tried kayaking. He got sea sick. It's still pretty from far away.
(ok to be fair, Neil was on steroids when we went kayaking because he got poison ivy three days before our honeymoon....romantic, i know)

Playing in the sand.

We went on a day trip to the "other" side of the island. There was a cute marketplace with locals selling everything from bags to spices.

We went hiking and were rewarding with the best views of the island.

There is a small beach near the airport so on our last day we went about 2 hours early, checked in, and walked to the beach. It was one of the best parts of our trip.

notice the DANGER sign.....yet the put a restaurant there :)

This surfboard listed all the arrival times for the day. Very convenient!

check out the guy in the corner!

It was so fun. We saw about ten planes in two hours!

We had a great week.
We are so thankful to our parents who gave us the honeymoon we never even expected!