Pictures from Sunday

My Grandma and Wanda Lee...two funny little ladies














The best group shot I got that evening. Aren't they a cute bunch? Excluding my brother's nasty woolly-mammoth like beard...YUCK!! Poor poor Connie...


















Atlee Sway Baby Cakes...I like calling her that...not sure why. Atlee's face was like this for about 30 minutes after she woke up from her nap at my house. The poor kid had about 13 mosquito bites that just kept itching and she kept saying that they hurt. Poor baby. We covered her in caladryl later in the evening and all was good. But isn't the Hollywood shirt that Chris and I got her just precious on her?











Jules Grae grins more than any person I know...isn't she the CUTEST?!?! She is the one that suggested that I give them all a bath at Grandma's house on Sunday night. Why is it that she always wants to take a bath when she is with me? I dunno!! She is so stinking cute though and got all the girls hyped up about it, so I sent kiddos home clean and smelling good!














Mia with her funny face. This girl told me something so funny in the restroom on Sunday evening, but I don't know if I should share with the blogging world. But the gist of it is she told me that she is only allowed to see her mommy and daddy's booties (this she refers to as both private parts). I replied with "well that is a good theory" to which she kept going to say "except for my daddy's long thing" with hand motions to go with it. I cracked up so hard that I could hardly breathe. Her daddy thought this was funny too, so I guess it is ok I just told everyone that. HAHAHA!

Quick Post

So here is a quick post.

Thursday was a rough day for me. I moved from one office location to another. Same company, different people to see everyday. Sounds trivial right? Ahhh...not for the crazy overly sensitive being that I am. You see I have worked at one particular location for over 8 years now so this was a big move to me. I cried all the way to my "new" office telling myself the whole time that I wasn't going to cry. Which obviously didn't work for myself. By the time I got to my "new" place I went to deliver some invoices to a certain department and had to hide out for a minute with my girls because I was literally sobbing by this point and almost hyperventilating. I am an idiot. This I know, but it was a stress reliever. And the people who witnessed this crazy act of insanity were supportive, loving and acted like it never happened. They are great people I tell you, so you see it really isn't all that bad. Thankfully one of my girls was able to get away for a moment and help me unload my car into my "new" place of existence. By the grace of GOD there was no one occupying the building at that point so no one saw my puffy, splotchy face with red rimmed blood-shot eyes. And by the time my meeting rolled around at the end of the day my eyes were still red-rimmed but no one seemed to notice.

Lets all just say a Hallelujah for the fact that men are not observant!!

I went home, cried some more, took a bath and went to bed. I am so glad I took off Friday to spend with my grandma and Wanda Lee. I was glad to see both of those little ladies who traveled from Missouri to visit us! I will have to post pics of that later. My computer seems to only want to read my memory card after it has been restarted...grr to the tower!

One good thing about this new location is the fact that it is a shorter driving distance from my house so I get home a few minutes earlier...oh yeah!

Anyways I should be studying for my CDL and getting ready for bed, but no I had to do a quick post and it wasn't so quick after all.

Random thoughts...

Random Thought #1:

Why does the great state of Texas, where everything is bigger and better (yeah, okay) have the sissiest mascots for high schools??

Example 1: Pioneers...for real, what is ferocious about a pioneer? The fact that he is carrying a rifle maybe?? And what is with the hat? That and the fringe rimmed jacket just about do me in for the dopey factor. Seriously, mascots are supposed to be ferocious, something to cheer about.












Example 2: A green hornet, SERIOUSLY?? This just makes me laugh...so you are going to sting me, eh? Just you wait til I bust out my can of Raid Insect and Wasp Killer on your sorry little stinging self.


Example 3: A kangaroo. To me kangaroos are cuddly...looking at least. Are they going to charge me and then hop all over me...I am wondering right now what the cheerleaders said during the cheers "HOP all over those pioneers!!" Pshaw!


Example 4: A porcupine. Once again, ferocious?? And what in the stink does POJO mean????? I have been trying to figure this out for years. And WHY is that what is printed on their cheer leading uniforms instead of something that makes sense like you know, SHS??


Example 5: A buffalo. Ok so maybe there could be a herd of them and they could get a stampede going on, but you just wait til my fringe-wearing pioneer busts out his rifle and shoots the sorry stampeding buffalo.


Where I grew up we had mascots like tigers, panthers, and bulldogs...you know things that could chew you up and spit you out...FEROCIOUS people!!




Random Thought #2:

Two voices I find sexy: Nickelback's lead singer Chad Kroeger and Josh Turner. Notice I said VOICES people...these men are awesome at what they do. Chad on the other hand is not at all awesome to look at...yuck. But Josh Turner, seriously is a good looking man with an awesome range. I love the song "figured you out" but feel so dirty after listening to it...I wish it had different lyrics...Josh Turner's songs are all grand and country though. And Josh is AWESOME live, we saw him at the Grand Ole Opry a couple of years ago...he sounds just like he does on his cd and I was seriously gushing.




Random Thought #3:

I love dogs that live OUTSIDE. Notice I said outside in big block letters there? Anyways, when Chris and I have land someday I want several BIG dogs. I want a St. Bernard, a weimaraner, a black lab, and a beagle. Ok, so beagles aren't that big but they are totally cute. And for those of you out there concerned with Spencer, yes he would be kept in the mix of things, he would just have to man up and learn to live outside instead of being a sissy indoor dog. Which I wish I could make him do now...




Random Thought #4:

Why are people shocked that I deleted my middle name when I changed my name after getting married? Would you honestly want to be stuck with a middle name that is spelled wrong because your great grandmother obviously never took phonics? AND would you want everyone being reminded of your middle name by a big cursive L?? With people always saying ha ha Lavern and Shirley...GAG!! This is why my name is now Lexi L and nothing more. So there! HA to my mean old great granny. I will NOT continue to curse future generations with the ugly name that you spelled wrong. My grandma and mom may have the middle name still but that is only because they were not clever enough to delete it when they changed their names. Also, my mom doesn't believe that it isn't on my birth certificate. I swear to you that my name is Lexi L on my birth certificate, but my mom thinks otherwise. I have it though and it is what it is. I think the hospital decided my mom was crazy because who would honestly give their child the middle name of Laverene??? Hack, gag, puke...why couldn't I get a cute middle name like Jane? That is what Laci got. I will forever be jealous of that. Grrr.


Random Thought #5

I find this funny. About a month ago I called my antivirus software company about my computer at home. We got a virus on our computer and I could not for the life of me get the stupid thing deleted or quarantined or anything. Instead, we got pop ups about every 30 seconds reminding us that it was there and that our software could not delete it. After talking to a seriously foreign person on the phone for about 20 minutes, they email me a software program to scan my computer and then send them back the log report that pops up after you do the scan. This program that they sent me is called HiJackThis. Isn't that amusing??? I thought so. Anyways, it worked. The virus is no longer on my computer and I highly recommend Trend Antivirus software for all home computer users.



Random Thought #6

I hate my skin. I hate its color, its irritability, its transparency, everything about it. If they offered skin transplants I would be the first to sign up. I want to be able to bust out a bar (yes bar) of irish spring and wash my body with it with out breaking out in weird red bumps all over my body. I hate shaving...I want laser hair removal bad. I love putting vicks on my lips at night before bed...why? I dunno, my mom made us do this when we were little and it has stuck with me into adulthood. I love the aroma of vicks it is relaxing and soothing.

Random Thought #7

Two Funny Movie clips I am pondering and laughing at today:

"You look like the 4th of July...makes me want a hot dog REAL bad" ~ Legally Blonde 2 - this movie is so dumb blonde it makes me laugh. Let's get a snap cup going people!!

Brodie: Brandi is the past my friend. You face forward, or you face the possibility of shock and damage.

[Brodie gets knocked down by a metal beam]

T.S. Quint: You should learn to heed your own advice.

Brodie: Where the hell did that come from? What's going on here?

T.S. Quint: Looks like a stage is being erected.

Brodie: What is this monstrosity?

T.S. Quint: Maybe it's for the Easter Bunny pictures.

Brodie: Impossible, the Easter Bunny Court is down at the other end of the mall, it's been there since two days after Christmas. I want answers!

~Mallrats...Jamye and I love this movie for some reason...always good for a laugh.



That's all of the random thoughts I have for now. Good day.

Fruit of the Spirit

As most of you may know the verse that mentions the fruit of the spirit. Well these are the verses that Mia has as a memory verse, so the whole Swinney clan is trying to memorize it to help her out. Here is how the verse goes in case you don't remember:

...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23.

Now here is a video of Mia rehearsing the verse:






And now copy cat Jules who you never knew could recite such things. (You may have to turn this one up she was talking very softly)





And here is a picture of Mia doing her school work at my kitchen table. She is doing so well in kindergarten and I am so proud of her.

I love hanging out with these little girlie girls...they are so fun! Even if they did decide to make sand angels in our sand pit of a back yard and had to get a bath. I actually like bath time with them, because they both act so silly it is funny and then it is like you fed them pure sugar, because afterwards they are running around like crazy wild screaming monkeys or something. And they smell so sweet after their baths that is another thing I like.


Oh and I like hanging out with their parents too...Connie and Levi truly are great friends to Chris and I, but for some reason they don't get mentioned as often as their two crazies. I wonder why that is...

Fall, Fall, Love IT!!

I love, love, love the cooler weather...I am so ready to bust out my halloween decor. And yes, I did actually get it down the other day, but I have yet to decorate with it. I really don't have that much stuff, but I did buy a few cute items last year after Halloween on clearance. I plan to do the same this year.

Chris and I enjoyed a walk around Watauga Lake the other night and plan to do the same tonight. Yippee! I even spent part of my lunch break during my seminar today walking around the hotel. I am hoping I walked about a mile, but who knows! I LOVE FALL!!

Snickerdoodle

California

As most of you know, we went on vacation the first week of September to California again this year. We stayed with Chris' Aunt Linda in Mission Viejo which is south of L.A. in Orange County. The first day we got there (we arrived in CA around 9:00 AM on Saturday Aug 30) Dan and Linda took us Paddle boarding. This basically consists of standing on an over-size surfboard and using a paddle (oar) to paddle yourself out and back. Don't let this fool you...it requires lots of balance and concentration. We had fun doing this though. Here are a few pics of that:



Linda & I

Chris next to the pirate ship

Chris & I on the beach

The next day (Sunday Aug 31) we went to Rodeo Drive with Linda and Michael. Rodeo Drive was beautiful and just as ritzy as imagined. I found a hair clip for $25 in one of the stores and decided to not enter any more. One street over there were some shops more in our price range where we did a little bit of shopping. Here are a few pictures from that:

I love this dress...I wish I could wear it...just once!

Infamous Rodeo Drive shot

Chris, Linda & Michael in front of Harry Winston's















Monday, Labor Day, we did more paddle-boarding and then we hung out with Dan and Linda the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, Chris wanted to go to Trestle's Surf Outlet. This is a place where they sell a lot of the "surf" wear/brands that Chris likes best, for very cheap. We did shopping there, went to the mall and had lunch, window shopped and then went back to Dan and Linda's and took a nap! If we had a choice, Chris and I would probably take a little nap every afternoon. Anyways, that night we went to Hollywood with Michael. Hollywood wasn't as impressive, it was kinda dirty and I had a VERY strange man wearing a red & black lace corset, a skirt with slits all the way up the sides with only a string thong on underneath (and YES you could see his butt cheeks...NASTY) make weird faces at me as Chris, Michael and I were eating at a nasty Mexican restaurant on Hollywood Blvd. All the freaks start coming out at night...this man was not the only weirdo we saw. There are also lots of people dressed up as characters that want you to pay to have your picture taken with them (ex: Marilyn Monroe, Captain Jack Sparrow, etc). Here are some of the nicer things we got pics of while we were there.




Us BEFORE the above mentioned nasty man made faces at me in the window.



















Hollywood Blvd


















Michael & Chris next to John Wayne's footprints, hand prints, and signature





















Gotta love Bing!

















That Wednesday we went to Newport Beach. I love this beach. It is filled with lots of cute shops on the beach, a very well kept beach and pier and you can look at all the condos that have ocean front views and dream of staying there for just a few nights. Ahh...here are some pictures from that day:

Chris on the beach

Chris & I

Waves

Chris under Newport Pier

Me under Newport Pier

Looking off the pier

Chris pretending to pet a seagull















The final day of our trip we went to Trestles beach. This beach is undeveloped and you actually have to walk a mile to get to the beach from the parking area. It is a state park. This beach is completely uninteresting and WAAAAY to long of a walk to get there if you are not interested in surfing. That is why people go to this beach...it has awesome waves. Chris begged that we go there because they were holding a surfing competition there on Sunday (after we left - he was so bummed) and he was hoping to see a few professional surfers practicing. Now we saw a lot of people surfing...only one professional though that we actually recognized. I think he is called "John John" he is like 16 years old and has been professionally surfing for several years now. I do not naturally know this kind of stuff...I learned all of that mumbo jumbo from Chris...he loves surfing (watching it that is). Here are some pics from that day:

yes that is a train track on the beach...we had to walk under this to get to the water.