New Project

I guess it was about a year ago when I woke up one morning and stepped out of bed on my way to the bathroom. I went a few steps and felt wetness seep through the carpet between my toes. I knew something was not right. I made it to the bathroom but the tile was dry as a bone. So we were a little puzzled about where the water was coming from. We eventually found out that we had a leak under our bathtub and the only way to get to it was to to lift the bathtub up. We thought about it for a while and decided to take advantage of the situation and make a walk in shower in place of the tub. I would have loved to have put in a garden tub but we just don't have room for that. So we purchased the materials for the new shower. Thankfully we have two bathrooms because we are just now getting to it. Rodney finally got some vacation time to devote to the project. I kind of added some work for him because I said it would be nice to just go ahead and makeover the whole bathroom. It is a pretty hefty project and he only has one week off from work. So we are just trying to get as much accomplished as possible. He spent Saturday night, Monday, and Tuesday just gutting the room and gathering supplies. We had to pick out tile and a new vanity. I have spent so much time at Lowe's and Home Depot this week and have tried not to complain b/c I get really restless in these stores. I just want to get in there and get out but it never happens that way. Wednesday and today were devoted to plumbing because there were more issues then we originally thought. Rodney's dad Johnny is a licensed plumber so he came over and helped out. They also got the shower pan installed so we are making progress. Tomorrow Rodney is going to get the walls up and maybe start tiling. I can't wait to see the finished project. Here are a few before pictures. It looks pretty scary right now but I will keep ya'll updated on the progress. Rodney goes back to work on Monday and will have to try to get it finished in his spare time which is sparse in itself. My goal is to not pressure him even though I am itching for it to be done.

This is the original vanity. My new vanity is a smaller dark brown cabinet with a marble top and white sink. It is really pretty and elegant. The faucets will be a brushed nickel. No more gold please. We are slowly eliminating all the gold hardware in our house.

This is the old bathtub. My friend Melissa was over when Rodney and his dad rolled the tub out on a dolley. She asked me if I was sad to see it go and I said nope!

This is the old tile, The new tile is darker and has more color variation.

The gutted room. It is kind of creepy. This is our master bath by the way so it opens straight into our bedroom. I made Rodney hang a sheet over it so I could sleep.


I think he may have enjoyed that sledge hammer a little too much!

Hooray! It's a shower pan!

Silly Glasses

Who knew so much fun could be derived from a cheap pair of plastic sunglasses that Tobey got out of a kid's meal. He played with them for several hours one afternoon. It started out as me trying to take a picture of him with the glasses on. He made a game of it by putting his glasses on and then running and plopping down on me. Each time his glasses would fall off and we would start all over again. He was cracking me up because he had to scrunch his face up to try to keep the glasses from falling down. Then I just started snapping pictures and I got some really funny mid-air, mid-jump snapshots. They really show his silly side. I did manage to get one sweet smiling shot before the silliness began. I have been such a slacker on blogging lately but we are just enjoying the summer and the days have been passing by so quickly. Tobey is all energy and is ready to go "bye-bye now" almost as soon as he wakes up. Naps are rare and short so by the time he goes to bed I am swamped and ready for bed myself. We have been going to the water park every week. Which has been great for building up his confidence in the water. But it takes me a full day to recover. Last week we went down all the slides in the kid's area multiple times and I was actually sore the next day. It is so much fun though. I love this age my child is in!! Anyway, here are some pics from our silly afternoon.

July 4th

This year we went out to my Aunt's house in Waxahachie. Rodney was excited because we were able to do our own fireworks. I personally prefer watching them but it was fun to watch his excitement. Tobey played with his cousins. He played hard too. I don't think he stopped moving the whole time we were there.




After dinner we all jumped in the pool. The pool was small so for fun we all swam in one direction and made a whirlpool. I think this went on for an hour. At least we burned our dinner calories off. By the time we got out of the pool it was time for fireworks.



We ladies sat chairs up in my Aunt's driveway and watched the boys have their fun. My cousin Nikki had the great idea of buying those glow in the dark necklaces and sticks. Each person wore one so we could see where everybody was. Tobey refused to wear his so I looped it through his back belt loop when he wasn't looking. It came in handy when he wanted to walk down the driveway with Daddy to light some fireworks. I knew where he was by following the round circle about a foot off the ground. I was very nervous the whole time and much relieved when the fireworks were all over. The boys did put on a pretty good show though.




Tobey held his first sparkler and was not very impressed. He was more impressed with the gazillion bikes laying around my Aunt's driveway. I missed the second half of the "show" because Tobey had to test drive every bike he could get his hands on.




By the end of the night he was so tired he could barely stay on this bike. We had a wonderful celebration with family but the best part-Tobey slept until 10am the next morning. It was wonderful!

Playing Catch Up

I haven't posted in so long but it has been a busy summer. My sweet younger sister came for her annual summer visit. She is 17 now and we had a blast while she was here as usual. I had a really hard time when she left this year. I cried the night before she left, the day she left, the day after, and will probably cry writing this post. I am trying to convince her to come to college here in Texas but I don't see it happening. She is a Bama girl. I was amazed at her increased maturity level from last summer. But I remember my own junior year had many defining moments and I grew up alot in that year. She was still the same Tina but had a little more wisdom behind those eyes.  She was here for 10 days and we played hard. I was exhausted by the time she left.  One of my favorite things we did was go see the musical Hairspray. Neither one of us had ever been to a musical and thought it would be fun. And it was. We decided this might be our "new thing" that we do together when she comes.



We made several trips to visit family while she was here and Foxy granny spent a few nights with us of course. Some of my family came over one day to swim. Yes, our swimming pool is finally up and running after a month of greenness. We ended up having a tear in one of the filters that our pool guy some how missed when he cleaned it. After that was fixed the pool cleared up by the next day. Amazing, huh! So we finally got in it for our first swim on June 26th. Better late than never.



Tobey was so excited to have everyone over. He really grew some courage with the water after watching the bigger kids. He let me pull him around in a float and would even jump off the first step into my arms. Those are huge steps for him.

Tina and I did our usual things while she was here. We had scary movie night, played cards, played monopoly (she beat me both times), went shopping, ate and ate. Her last night here I took her to Texas Roadhouse because it is my favorite place to eat and it seemed an appropriate Texas send off. We both ordered my usual, the Dallas Filet and it was delicious. I ordered Tobey a sweet potato overflowing with marshmallows. We were all stuffed and happy after we left so we went to Target. I got some gifts for her to take back to my nephews in Alabama. I also bought the new John Mayer "Where the Light Is" DVD. It is amazing if you like John Mayer and I do. She bought a new car for Tobey and they had some final moments together on the kitchen floor.










Tobey fell asleep on the way to the airport which was probably good because he didn't see his mommy sobbing all the way home. When we got home he asked where Aunt Nina was. He didn't get to say goodbye even though she opened the back door and kissed him on the forehead. A couple of days later he was playing and he randomly looked up at me and said Nina...airport. I asked him if he wanted to pick Nina up at the airport and he said yes! I wonder how confused he is because my mom is Nana/Nina depending on how he chooses to say it. My sister-in-law Shanna is Neener and sometimes Nina. And now he has another Nina. So I am not quite certain which Nina he wanted to pick up from the airport. I am sure it was the latter one who is still fresh on our minds and hearts. I miss her so much already and she only left 5 days ago. Hopefully we will get out to see the Alabama crew this fall. If not then it will be May when my baby sister graduates! Crazy, considering I was 12 when she was born. I am so old!