Just call me Auntie Beth...

Friday morning we woke up without much to do,

so we decided to follow through on some 

long-standing plans we've had to babysit two of Roy's 

nieces for the night.

We picked them up at 3 and I did some quick

research on my phone to try and figure out

what the heck to do with 'em now that we had them!

So off to Crown Center we went, to a free

childrens play exhibit they have open this month.

But first, we had to stop at every bathroom between 

Olathe and downtown..

McDonalds bathroom, Quicktrip bathroom,

and Boston Market Bathroom.

I'm halfway convinced that they were just getting a kick

out of watching Aunt & Uncle panic that they were

going to pee in my car!!

But, finally we got to our destination and

they seemed to have a blast, and bonus- it was free

so I was happy!

Roy and I pretty quickly sprung into overprotective 

aunt and uncle mode...we were like hawks watching them

while they played 

 Roy kept going and standing by the entrance 

'Just in case someone tries to take them..'

hehe...cute.

I must say...in my very limited child rearing

experience of 1 day-which makes me like, an expert I'm sure...

I am UBER annoyed by

parents who let their children run helter skelter

wreaking havoc and hogging swings and toys!!

Hey! Get off your freaking phone and come get your

spoiled brat who just ripped the rope swing out

of my nieces hands!!

Ugh...new pet peeve.

After we were all played out, we headed to Fritz's 

for some overpriced and mediocre kid friendly

dinner :)  Roy and I each had a 

burger and when it was all said and done,

we also had the girls' chicken nuggets that they ate

about two bites of...haha.

Amateur caregiver move-don't let your kids

drink giant glasses of chocolate milk before their

dinner comes...duh.

I was nervous about bedtime, but it actually

went really well. We pulled our air mattress

into our bedroom, and after some TV time,

a bit of coloring and a bedtime snack,

we had two very sleepy little girls!

Here are a just a very few pictures I caught...

(PS..how do parents EVER take any pictures

of their kids?? I barely had a spare second to 

pull out my phone-much less a camera!)

At Fritz's

Elissa sporting her conductors hat

lol..this makes me laugh..

Uncle Roy sporting his conductors hat

Early morning monkey business

Overall I'd say it was a success...

and it is always so endearing for me 

 to see Roy in uncle-action.

I feel like we worked really well together 

as a team, and I can't help but to get

excited for one day when it's our own

little ones that we're wrangling..

Saturday night we headed out to The Legends

for one of my oldest friends birthday dinner.

I was so excited (and somewhat shocked) 

that Roy actually wanted to come with...

He tends to shy away from joining me at things

when he's not going to know many people, 

but I think since these were some of my friends

that he knows from 'back in the day'...

(yes I'm old and I just said 'back in the day..')

he felt a little more comfortable coming along,

and I was so glad to have him there!

Here's the only picture I have from dinner:

I can't believe I've known these girls

for 12 years!! 

I'm not the greatest at staying in touch with

people, so that fact that we've all stayed

friends over the years means a lot to me.

It was a fun night, and a great weekend.

Now just two nights of work and then we

leave on Wednesday for San Diego!!

Yippee!!

2 days and counting...

Our refinance is complete...HOORAY!!

Well after roughly 3 months and lots of anxious waiting,

we closed on our refinance today!

I'm so happy and feeling super-blessed because we had pretty

much given up hope that this was going to happen.

Our first appraisal came in $18,000 lower
than what we needed...YIKES!

That was a tough pill to swallow...
but we didn't feel there was much that we could do about it.

But our super-awesome mortgage consultant at Wells Fargo
really went above and beyond for us
and was able to get the first appraisal thrown out

(which I've heard is quite a feat)
and got us a second appraisal that went so much better!!  

Thank you, God.

I  know there were several people praying for us
 through this entire process, and I credit their prayers
and our mortgage guys hard work for making this happen.

If you live in KC and you're needing a referral,
 I have a name for you!

So the bottom line is...we lowered our mortgage payment

by $210 a month (yippee!!)
and got rid of our PMI, which will save

us a great deal of money over the course of our loan.

I'm SO very thankful.

This date has special meaning for me this year and

I was really needing something to lift my spirits...

God delivered, and I'm knowing in my heart

that it was no coincidence our closure was on this date.

I have no pertaining picture for this post...

but I feel the overwhelming need to post one anyways...

So here's a photo that will stand testament to

why you don't let your husband do your little girls hair

on school picture day...
Rachael take note:

Nice work Pops...the signature side-pony.

And my sweetheart neckline...

I love it :)

These shoes were made for walkin'

Heylo There!!

I've been a bit of an absentee blogger haven't I??

Well, I'd love to say that my lack of blogging is due to single-handedly
ending world hunger or something,
but the truth is that I just haven't had much to say...
or atleast not much I wanted to say outloud.
Silly, huh...even on my dumb little blog read by approximately 1 person
who already knows all my garbage ;)
I still feel the need to sensor the negative feelings and stick to 

the light and fluffy things of daily occurence.
The things on my heart as of late have felt a bit heavy
and let's be honest, light and fluffy blogging is a lot easier
(although maybe not as interesting)

as the heavy-hitting stuff....

That being said...

Here's some light and fluffy...

I caved to the hype.
I'll now be rocking what I was previously mocking.

Karate shoes.

I own some.
Hi-Ya!!

Still not the cutest things in the world, but they grew on me...

like so many styles that you initially scoff at 

(pointy toed shoes...skinny jeans..to name a few)

and then find yourself slinking off to the store to buy.

Well, I slinked...and I bought. 

But dangit they're comfy and I'm excited.

My motivating factor was the upcoming San Diego trip in

10 days.... (happy dance!)

I'm setting a goal this trip to tone down the overpacking and I 

felt I really need just a single pair of shoes that I could wear 

casually to dinner, but were comfy enough to walk or to go bike riding in.

And these TOMS fit the bill...

This by no means implies that I will be packing only a single pair of shoes...

(this is me we're talking about after all!!)

But I am hoping that they will take the place of needing tennis shoes and

several pairs of not-as-comfy ballet flats. 

oh!...before I caved for the TOMS I thought I'd run by

  DSW to see if I could find any alternatives...

and some dummy at Sketchers actually went and

made a wanna-be TOMS and named it a "BOBS". 

How lame is that?

and yeah...I tried them on, cause they were cheaper...

but even I'm cooler than that!