Things I've Done

This is a tag from another blog. I know I have not written in a long time but we are coasting through till the end of the month. May will be full of things to blog about.

Things I have done... Just copy and paste this to your blog and bold the ones that you HAVE done and make sure to put your score at the end. It got me to thinking about what I would like to do in life.

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland






8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables- working on it

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Gone without food or water for 24 hours or longer
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Stayed up for 24 hours with NO sleep at all

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check - oops
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square
76. Changed a light bulb

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Mowed the lawn

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible -working on it

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person - too many times

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

41 of 99
Not many but I'm working on it. What is your score?

Birthday Surprise!

This weekend Mom and Dad Shanks came down for a Birthday Surprise for Neil. And he was sure surprised! We did some celebrating, a lot of eating, a trip to the Sports Hall of Fame and started a garden (in the rain). But the big surprise was his new toy. For the past six months Neil has been mowing our 1.5 acres with a push mower. But now, he will be cruising along on his new riding mower. Check out this postcard of America - with the boots and all!

Happy Birthday Husband

Today is Neil's 24th Birthday! I know he does not like to be the center of attention (ex. balloon story below) but a little Birthday Blog won't hurt.

happy birthday to you - and many more, old man! It is great to be able to spend a whole day celebrating YOU! I love you.
Thank you for all your phone calls, cards, and messages too.

Balloon Story:
for his birthday I decided to surprise him with lunch from his favorite restaurant but I couldnt stop there so I brought him cupcakes and balloons. We ate our lunch and then.....he stuffed the balloons in the closet and left them there for the rest of the day, so no one would know it was his birthday.

please excuse this picture, Neil decided to make funny faces for EVERY picture so this is the best one. We celebrated at home with a birthday cake, pizza and presents. And you can't forget the birthday hat!

Porch Phase 2

We finished phase 2 of the porch which involved putting up the columns and the ceiling. We scored the columns from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore for $12 each. I didn't actually realize how great a deal that was until a recent trip to Home Depot ($60). We can't decide whether or not to put porch rails up because we like the look already and we enjoy the uninterrupted view from our chairs. We also put up a raised ceiling with all the trimmings and a fan. In the mean time, we will continue work on priming and painting.

Here is a close up of the columns.

Rock-n-chairs

In my birthday blog I mentioned the great gift Neil gave me - a pair of rocking chairs. The required assembly (which is a story in itself) and then the weather was not so good so they stayed inside. Well, now Spring has sprung and they have made their way outside. So here they are.


The pillows were made recently to match the footstool mentioned in an earlier blog. Made out of burlap, they should withstand the elements pretty well.

We have enjoyed them already and look forward to many more sunsets and wildflowers.

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