Technology will take over your soul

Don't get me wrong, I'm a tech junky. I love that shit. I have a smart phone and an iPad and a laptop and every now and then in the evenings after my sweet, darling, little angels are asleep, you might find all three fired up around me. 

Overload? Probably. 

But what I saw at the mall the other day made me question my faith in the institution of family. It was just plain sad. I'm sitting at the table with Jonas eating my weekly Sweet Teryaki from the Great Steak whatever it's called, not minding my own business. I look to my left because I'm hearing a commercial or something and had to do a double take.

This poor woman is sitting at the table gazing off into nothing, probably daydreaming about some hot latin pool boy while her teenage boy and husband are watching shows on their separate iPads and eating their lunch. 

They would laugh at their show, take a bite, and repeat, not saying one word to each other. 

I make an effort not to pull my phone out during a meal, while interacting with my boys or when I'm spending time with others. I find a person who can't disconnect, even for just a few minutes, to be rude and inconsiderate. Granted, an emergency or a one-time, have to talk to this person right now thing is forgivable. 

Making it a habit? Not so much.

There are certain places where I know Adrian and I could improve (he is a repeat offender and it drives me craaazy),  especially not bringing technology to bed. I really do hate when it imposes on our...ahem...together time? 

We do try to shut off at a certain time and watch a show or look up random stuff on the internet together, but sometimes I miss the times when I was pregnant with Gabriel and instead of being so "on" all the time, we would play cards or board games all night long.

It's that. That stimulation that comes with looking people in the eyeballs, actually communicating without LOLing and LMAOing and making synapses fire in your brain, that's the good stuff. The stuff that you lose out on when your eyes are glued to a computer, a phone, a tablet, geeking out with your internet friends and playing weird warcraft games.

Does your family struggle with this? Do you have any rules to make sure all that techy stuff doesn't take over your life?

GFC Blog Hop

Hi Friends,

Come join in, link up and find some new, great blogs!

It's Tuesday again which means it's time for the GFC Blog Hop!

When I want to follow a blog the first thing I look for is GFC (Google Friend Connect), it's so easy and  nice to be able to go and see all of the blogs you follow in one spot. It's really a great tool to have. 

One side note- Did you know you can follow through GFC using your Twitter Account? TRUE, it's definitely an option!

Ok, so let's get to the party, shall we?

RULES are simple:

1. Follow your host via GFC

The First link below

2. Follow your co-hosts via GFC

The Next 8 links below

3. Link up below using your main blog url not a specific post.

4. Make sure to visit some of the blogs in the link up and follow them via GFC 

and if you want to leave them a comment, I'm sure they'd appreciate that as well.

5. Tweet about this blog hop

Tweet

6. Share about this blog hop by grabbing a button and putting it on your sidebar!

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Hard work: flower beds and walk way

This weekend we were so lucky to have my sister-in-law and her family here for a quick visit. They were awesome about getting their hands dirty with us as we continue knocking away at our large laundry list of things to do around the house. 

As we sat watching the kids play and my father-in-law finish the grading that he started a few weeks ago in the front yard, I mentioned to my SIL that I was planning to rip up all of the nasty weeds in the front flower beds and plant something pleasant to look at.

Before you know it, my brother-in-law and all of the kids are ripping up weeds while she and I jump in the car to head to Home Depot.

I'm so thankful that she was here to help me because I would never have known the difference between perennials and annuals, what soil to buy and where things grow best.

Okay, okay. I got a little carried away photographing the flowers...

...and babies...

He was so fascinated by the dirt! We'll come back to him in a minute.

Since we will be adding a circular driveway and parking in the front yard, we knew we'd need a pathway through the flower beds.

Lining it so pesky weeds don't grow through the rock.

Pretty stones! I know that I want a little more contrast though, so we're going to try to find some darker stones to mix in with these.

We're making progress and I'm loving it! Our next project is going to be the grass and laying out the driveway. This will be the most expensive part of our outdoor project as we're planning to plant some trees, do some landscaping and lay everything out with railroad ties. I also picked out some paint samples for the kitchen and will hopefully be working on that in the next week.

What's up in your world?

Christmas Tree Pallet Project

I'll admit it, I'm one of those obnoxious people who gets into the Christmas spirit about 4 weeks ahead of everyone else. I just put up Fall decor and I'm pretty sure by the end of this weekend I will have torn it down, replacing acorns and pumpkins with snowmen and santas. Thank God my husband loves me despite my crazy.

Anyway, I saw this on Pinterest and after checking out the huge stack of pallets in the backyard left by the previous owners, I knew it was about to get all Christmas up in the club. The picture is a little different than mine (aka, she used super cool font and different colors) but I'm pretty much in love with the way it turned out.

Here is my extremely non-scientific, clumsy, not-the-right-name-for-any-of-the-tools awesome tutorial for my very merry Christmas tree.

What you'll need (all of this is critical, super important stuff):

-Pallet
-Stake
-+ all of this stuff below...

STEP ONE:

Use middle beam of pallet as the backbone of your tree. Cute boards in the shape of a tree with the saw.

Hack away at other pieces of board if necessary. That's what the hammer is for. To wield against the dark forces of board-dom.

STEP TWO:

Spray paint tree green. Or don't. I wanted mine green because, well, it's a tree.

Let it DRY.

STEP THREE:

Once tree is dry, get your grater thingy out. You also may sub this for sand paper/handheld sander. I would have used the alternative had my husband not misplaced the sandy supplies in the move. Hence weird grater thing.

Sand the edges of your tree for a distressed look. Don't like distressed? Don't do it. I do. So I did.

STEP FOUR:

My first thought was to just trip down the backbone of the pallet, but then it was too thick and my saw was sucky and so I walked through my backyard and found a stake. I drilled it onto the back using two screws. Easy peasy. (Like my work boots?)

STEP FIVE:

Use coffee grounds to darken edges.

Again, not entirely necessary, but I liked that it didn't look like brand new wood underneath. I used a paper towel (could use one of those little metal scrubber things) to rub them all over the edges and then wiped them off with a rag.

STEP SIX:

Decorate.

I wrote "May your days be merry and bright" because I'm not creative and that's what the other girl wrote. It has a nice ring to it. I used glitter on the letters and acrylic paint for the writing.

The paparazzi was all up on me while I was glitterating.

The only change I may make is to outline/darken the brown. In person it is readable but in these pictures it blends in a little too much.

Are you into the Christmas spirit yet? When will you be decorating??

Cattle Call, ya'll

The Brawley Cattle Call Rodeo is one of the biggest events, aside from the state fair, to grace the valley each fall. It brings professional riders and racers, broncs and steer, and enough locals to make the Brawley traffic a royal nightmare.

This was the first year that we attended as a family; last year Adrian went with Gabriel and let's just say, the vendors got the best of him. All I know is that he came home with a bag larger than Gabriel full of kettle corn and a large fake machine gun about the same size. If you know us, you know we don't allow guns in the house aside from nerf or water.

It was a special night for a number of reasons. First, I love going to rodeos - I love the atmosphere, watching the riders and enjoying the good food. Secondly, I love spending any night out with my little family. Third and most importantly, being close to Veteran's Day and close to my Tata's birthday and watching those beautiful girls on horses, it brought back some fond memories.

Enough to bring tears to my eyes.

You see, sometimes when you get busy in life and with family and friends and stuff, you forget about the memories you shared with the people you've lost. They kind of get put on the back burner for whatever reason and then BAM. It's like a mack truck hit you right in the face.

 Now, I never went to a rodeo with my Tata, although I'm sure he went to plenty on his own, but he did teach me to ride a horse. He taught me how to throw on a saddle, put a bridle on, bathe and feed a horse...he taught me a lot about responsibility, about kindness, about making mistakes and then owning up to them. He would sit outside his sliding door to his room and watch me. Give me pointers. Talk about life.

Now that I'm grown and have my own kids, I wish times a million zillion that he could be here to snuggle my children. Play Santa for them at Christmas. Yell at them when they're running around his house like crazy people. Tell them stories about bear fights and Indians. 

Although this night was a special time to reminisce about my Tata, I loved spending it with Adrian and the boys. We had a great time while there, ate some chili dogs, drank some hot chocolate and watched all of the cowboys get bucked off the steers.

The first event of the show was the wild mustang rides and Gabriel was NOT amused. As Adrian and I saw there laughing at this silly men trying to get astride these kicking horses, Gabriel looked absolutely horrified. When I asked him if it was funny, he said, "No mom. This is NOT funny at all. They should not be doing that!" He loosened up after that and enjoyed himself, though by about 8:45, both boys were ready to pack up and head home.

Aaaaaaaand out.