Diamond Creek

This post is for letters C and D for the A to Z challenge!

If you are here from the challenge, please say hello and I will try to get back to your blog as well.  Also, please feel free to pull up a chair, cruise around my blog, and stay as long as you would like!

I am sorry to those who stopped by yesterday expecting to see a C post, and to their dismay only found letter B.  I live in the Dallas area, and we were bombarded by tornadoes yesterday afternoon.  So far, they national weather service is thinking 12-13!!!  I was glued to the tv, watching everything unfold and last night I was watching the tremendous stories of survival (example: a grandmother holding onto the foot of her 18 month old grandson so that he would not be sucked up by the wind from the tornado!)

I am so very thankful that I live in an area that was not hard hit at all, we only had some rain.  Others, were not so lucky.  Arlington, Lancaster, and Forney were the hardest hit.  Tornadoes ravaged the cities and leveled houses.  Hail was the size of tennis balls, and semi truck trailers were thrown through the air like rag dolls.  The tornadoes damaged schools and nursing homes, and we, as a community, are praising God that no one was killed.  There were some injuries, some people that were taken to the hospital, but everyone is alive and counted for!!  Praise God!!

My dad and step mom live in Forney, less than a mile away from Diamond Creek community (click on the link for photos and more), and it is so scary to think that my step mom was home the entire time under the stairs in their house. 

The community is coming together to help one another.  There have been multiple donation centers open, and people are flooding them with the items they need.  There is also an orientation center set up, so people can go, get certified, and go volunteer for the clean up.

Please keep the DFW area in your prayers, as the people affected begin to piece their life back together.



Photo by Leslie Gilliam



My Brothers Rock!!

I am not sure that I have ever talked about my brothers before, but I have some great ones!!  I am the youngest of the 3 kids {and the only girl}, and so it took a long time for my brother's and I to get along.  We don't talk every day, but we see each other a lot more than we have in years and have the best relationship we've had in many years!!

When my parents divorced when I was in 9th grade, both of my brothers went with my mom, and I stayed with my dad.  I believe this was the start of our separation.  We all had our own lives as we grew, and it just became easier to not have any contact.  My whole extended family has never really been close {we tend to only see each other at Christmas}, which is polar opposite of my husband's family.  That is another post all in its own, and I am getting really off topic.

My middle brother, Doug, is a computer genius!  He really is!  He works for a company that deals with computer problems for many apartment communities and he is amazing at it!!  He is the first {and only} person I call when we are having computer problems.  He was super swamped with work this week, but he still took time out one night after work and drove over to fix our computer.  It was a super easy fix {took maybe 10 minutes total}, and our computer is running great again!!  I am so thankful for my brother taking time out of his busy schedule to come help out his little sis just in the nick of time {since I start my collage classes on Monday}!

My oldest brother Aron is amazing too!  He battled addiction for many many years.  He has slowly turned his life around, and is doing so great!  He drives 2 hours to go to school at night a few times a week, and still works full time.  He has decided now that he wants to start a support group for other recovering addicts in his area!  I am so proud of him and how much he has grown in the past few years!

I am truly blessed to have a wonderful family, and I just wanted to take a minute to brag :)  

Happy Anniversary Babe!!!

6 years ago at this very time, I was sitting in a dining room chair at my maid of honors house getting my hair curled by my bridesmaids.  I could have never imagined that day what my life would have blossomed into today.  I gained not only another family, but my partner in life.  I can not imagine a day going by with out my best friend and my soul mate by my side.

Marco and I met in Lake Charles LA; traveling with Carino's as trainers to open up new restaurants.  When I first met him, I did not like him at all!!  He was arrogant, cocky, and had to be the center of attention with his constant joke telling.  He wooed me with his Spanish pick up lines, and by then end of the 2 weeks, I knew my life would never be the same!

Marco and I have been through our share of ups and downs, but the ups definitely outnumber the downs.  I have a wonderful, handsome, loving, patient, hardworking hubby!  He is the rock of this family, and I am so lucky to spend the rest of my life in his arms!!  I love you with all my heart!

Top Ten Thankfuls

I feel like I am so far behind since we went out of town on vacation, so I am going to make it up with a few blogs at a time :)

5 Things I am Thankful For because with out them, I could not exist

1 Our Loving, Forgiving, Almighty God

2 My Wonderful Husband who loves me unconditionally

3 My silly, cuddly, beautiful and handsome, wonderful children

4 My amazing circle of friends

5 My parents

5 Things That I Could Not Live Without, there for I am very Thankful

1 Coffee and yummy creamers, I could not function with out my morning cup

2 My gorgeous 4 post bed with a pillow top mattress, enough said

3 My Beast of a truck, the most expensive yet best thing we have ever invested in

4 Music, I love singing, I am horrible, but I LOVE to do it!!

5 Wine, no better way to end a stress filled day

What are 5 things that you could not live without???

Thankful for Sleep

Today my thankful post is about my great cuddly monkey sleeper. Brayden is an amazing sleeper!! I know how blessed I am, because our first Miss Maddi was a horrible sleeper. She was also a colicky, sickly, barking cough crier. I love Maddi but man was she ever high maintenance. Sorry, off topic back to Brayden. With this being our third and final baby, I feel like we have totally been blessed with an amazing baby. He is very content sleeping curled up next to his mama, on the couch with the tv going and the girls playing all around him, in his car seat, just about anywhere we can put him. The one thing he doesn't like to do is be moved out of a loud room into a quiet one while he is sleeping. He more often than not will wake a few minutes after you move him, only to fall back asleep in your arms around the commotion. One thing I said I was not going to do was have Brayden in our bed, so there is a pack and play (PNP) specifically for him to sleep in at night. I do start him off in the PNP but when he wakes up for his feeding, he stays in bed with me. I can't help it, I love cuddling with my baby monkey. He is so content and sleeps so GREAT right next to me. It makes it easier on me, and easier on him. Well, easier on me now. I am sure I will regret this when he is 4 and still wants to sleep with us. For now, please enjoy my sleeping baby photos!!

Thankful for the best friends I could ask for....

I am so thankful for the group of girls that I can call my very best friends. I have been friends with most of these girls 10 years. It is crazy to think that we just started out as co-workers at Saltgrass and now we are life long friends. We have been through some crazy, adventurous, rough, happy, tough, loving times and I would not change any of it. What we have gone through makes us better friends today. We have had babies together, celebrated love at each others weddings, got in trouble together, and so much more in these past 10 years. The ladies that I am blessed to call my friends now, I know in my heart will be friends 50 years from now.


Yvonne, Steph, Britt, Wen, Roxy, and Me



Brittney and Me at her wedding


Wendy and I were pregnant together during Summer 2010


Wendy and I had our boys in the fall


Roxy and Me


Mine and Roxy's kids at the pumpkin patch


Yvonne and Me


Marsha and I have been friends for 12 years

Thankful November

I am going to try to make a point and post all month about the things in my life that I am thankful for.










I am so very very thankful that we have a roof over our head. Our house may not be much and it may not be "ours" but we have a roof and walls that keep us safe and warm. I could not imagine having to live with out this luxury and I pray to God that we never have to find out.

I could not imagine my life without my husband and my wonderful children. God has blessed me with a loving, understanding, and hard working husband that would do anything to make his family happy. God has also blessed me with a super smart Maddison, a fun loving Diva Gabriella, and my easy going Chubby Wubby Brayden. My family is complete and we are healthy and HAPPY and for that, I am so thankful.