Shout Out to my Boys

I thought I would give a shout out to my Daddy and Michael. They have both faithfully fulfilled their roles as the men in my life lately. Michael spent hours painstakingly painting and priming the nursery so that it is now all ready for Linde's creative juices to flow. This is huge because he hates painting. And, my dear old Daddy totally saved me when the battery in our truck died the day of Linde's engagement party. I was driving it because I had already disabled my car with a slow leak. We went out to go get lunch and the truck wouldn't start. Daddy jumped the battery and helped me get to Auto Zone so they could help him put in a new battery. I would have been toast without his help.
Thanks guys, I sure do love you!!!

Happy Birthday Lou Lou

Big Mamma Lou is having a Birthday today! As you can see, she is not big she's tiny. So I vetoed BML for her Grandma name. I think we have settled on Lou Lou.
Here are some little known facts about my Mamma:
1) The woman can sew. She never does it, her Mom was even more amazing. But, when push comes to shove she can sew really well.
2) She's pretty shy, most people don't realize and think she is haughty or harsh, but she's not she's just nervous.
3) She has the gift of gifts. Mom always comes up with the best gifts. Sometimes they are so good it takes awhile to fully appreciate it, but she gives great gifts for all occasions and does it without breaking the bank.
4) I think it is truly amazing that she is such a great Mom and Wife, she had to figure out both of these roles without her Mom, unfortunately she died when Mom was in college
5) She is little Cindy Lou Who
6) Okay it's not little known, but she always has fabulous hair and has willingly participated in every hair trend she could. Family pictures are so fun to look at!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMMA. WEE LOVES YOU!!!!

I'm a Sucker for Surveys

1. What is your occupation?NICU Nurse
2. What color are your socks right now? Blue pink and green argyle with a navy stripe
3. What are you listening to right now?Monitors beeping, oxygen flowing to little noses
4. What was the last thing that you ate?Banana (yuck) and oatmeal
5. Can you drive a stick shift? nope
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? purple
7. Last person you spoke to on the phone?some check at Banfield Animal hospital
8. Do you like the person who sent this to you?I took it from Annalee and Maddie, they are great!
9. How old are you today?27
10. Favorite drink? Fountain diet DP
11. What is your favorite sport to watch?Football
12. Have you ever dyed your hair?Oh yeah!
13. Pets? Cleopatra Perfect Angel
14. Favorite food?Pizza!!!
15. Last movie you watched?Live Free or Die Hard-it was awful
16. Favorite Day of the Year? Pretty much any holiday and/or birthdays
17. What do you do to vent anger?Gripe and complain, cry when I am so mad and there is nothing I can do
18. What was your favorite toy as a child?Books I am a nerd!
19. What is your favorite, fall or spring? Spring, fall means cold is coming-boo
20. Hugs or kisses?both!
21. Cherry or Blueberry?Cherry for sure, but Maddie says blueberries are brain food
25. Living arrangements? Best house ever made just our on with love from our families
26. What is on the floor of your closet?Shoes neatly organized and a bag of summer clothes Linde just returned
30. Favorite smell?in the country after it rains, clean babies, a freshly cleaned house
31. What inspires you? People inspire me with what they can do, overcome and achieve every day!

Hope you liked this, I love know these kinds of things about other people-so y'all get busy!

This Year We Are Getting 2 New Family Members

Nope, I am not having twins, thank goodness! We are getting a JEFF!!!! Friday night Linde and Jeff got engaged. It was so exciting. Jeff did a great job, and was very sweet to let our family in on the big secret and even help out a little. In true Browning style Linde changed up his plans a little, but I'll let them tell you the story-it's great.
Linde's ring is very fabulous and she just couldn't stop feeling it Friday night at the great post engagement party. My favorite part of the ring is that it belonged to Jeff's grandmother.
Here's the happy couple, practicing their posing. Jeff was little disturbed the card I got them sported a headless bride and groom.

Finally, I have to give Mom and her BFF Alison a shout out. Mom and Alison worked so hard to cook all the food and throw the perfect engagement party. It was awesome from start to finish. This is Alison, Erin, Mom and Linde. Erin was Linde's best friend from first grade until we moved to Tyler. Erin helped out a ton with the party, too. If you ever need silverware folded perfectly give this girl a call!

We are so excited for Linde and Jeff and can't wait for the big day! Please be praying for their marriage and our families during this special time.

SHE KNOWS!!!!!

The only thing that was hard for me about not knowing whether Wee is a he or a she was the nursery. My sister Linde just happens to be the best children's nursery and furniture painting artist in town, among many other talents. I was a little sad to think she would be limited by having to go gender neutral, even though I knew she could do a great job in those circumstances. But then I remembered the power of the Sister Secret. Linde has been my secret keeper since before she could talk. She knows all my dirty and boring little secrets. We both know that there is no secret like a sister secret. So, she graciously agreed to keep the biggest Sister Secret to date-Linde and Linde alone will know if Wee is a he or a she. We carefully discussed all the gender specific details before she knew so Michael and I could have lots of good input and get to have fun picking nursery stuff. But, as of yesterday all discussions are done because.... SHE KNOWS!!!! It is so cool. I think Linde and Wee will always have an extra special bond because of this. She is such a good sister to be willing to work hard to give him or her a fabulous room and keep such a special secret! Thanks Pooh Linde, we love you!!!!



Here's a 30 week picture. It's getting bigger. We had a sono on Monday and everything continues to look great.

This weekend I got to watch one of my Mom's greatest talents first hand. The woman is a garage sale queen. In just 2 days we managed to whittle 2 very full car loads down to these very few things. She can sale like a champ. I mostly just watched the show and passed out change, it was great. We were also so fortunate to have amazing weather Saturday. Cindy's garage sale tip of the century-don't waste your time pricing things. People want to haggle anyway and it made set up a million times easier. She's a genius what can I say. I only hope Wee inherits either the garage sale talent or some of Linde's artistic abilities or even better-both! To see more of Linde's fabulous work check out her website, there is a link on the top left corner of this page.

Getting Up on My Soap Box

They have this thing at my work called "The Bathroom Brief" and I think it is so awful. It really pisses me off, punn intended :). Seriously, I come and work for 12 long hours at a time. If I want to go to the bathroom I have to get permission from my fellow nurse in the room to leave my babies in her care or if I am in a room by myself, find someone to watch my babies while I spend 2 minutes in the bathroom. I should not have to do work while I go to the bathroom, do not leave me a sign about the things you would like for me to improve on while I potty. Let me do my business in peace.
I know my work is not the only place that has these clever little signs to make sure you are working every possible second and I just want to go on record as saying it is too much in my personal space. If you are person that posts these, stop it.
Thank you for listening to me vent. I promise my next post will be more upbeat. Don't forget Yard Sale at my house tomorrow, everything must go! :)

Weekend Wrap Up

Well, we had a crazy and great weekend. Thursday night after work I trekked to the big city of Bullard to have a garage sale with Mom. When the fam moved to the lake she decided it was finally time to get rid of a lot of little country home crap that had been hanging around since the 80's and a lot of other stuff that had just accumulated since our move to T town in 95. So we/she (I really just showed up for the easy part) spread all our lovely stuff out and tried our best to sell it. It was a little cold on Friday and it is a little hard to find the new house, but we still made some great nursery $$ and I got to spend quality time with Mom and Daddy. Plus, Mimi stopped by for lunch and provided 2 soups and 3 kinds of cookies-I love having Mimi by us!
After the big sale I went home and Michael had our standard dork night date, Pizza and 20/20. I think he was snoring by about 9:50 which for him is kind of late. I happily played my tetris and changed the channel to a chick flick until I felt it was a more respectable time for bed, 11:00 we are crazy!
Saturday we went to Austin to see our travel BFF's Annalee and Evan and meet sweet Adelaide. She is adorable. We had so much fun loving on her and she was very sweet to play nicely while we went out to dinner Saturday night and brunch on Sunday, I hope Wee was taking notes. I also finally got to play Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution. I loved both and I am officially jealous of all my friends who got a DS for Christmas, Annalee's is awesome. I really really want one. Tetris, Brain Age and so much more-I might not ever get anything done. Maybe it is good I don't have one.
Michael and I made it home just in time to chat outside with the neighbors for a few minutes, it was a beautiful day and get comfy for the Super Bowl. What a game. I had told everyone I knew I just didn't really care about it blah blah blah. But, wow. I am impressed. I found myself cheering for Eli and thrilled when the Giants won. That guy who caught the ball with his helmet should have been MVP.
Well, that was our weekend. I hope yours was at least half as good!
If you live near me Garage Sale part 2 this Saturday only! There are some great things you probably need! :)