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!

Drumroll please.....

Team Girl                                            Team Boy

It's a..........GIRL!!!

It's a Girl! It's a Girl! It's a Girl!!

I was shocked. Floored. Flabbergasted.

Good thing I'm not a betting woman, cause I would

have put all my chips on 'boy'.

Wow.

I mean, how great is that?

Rachael and Matt will be awesome parents to

ALL the children they have, but I'm especially thrilled

for my friend because in her heart of hearts she

really wanted a girl first. 

And I'm SO thrilled for them!!

The party was great...

such a fun way to celebrate exciting news with

your closest friends and family.

I loved it.

Here's some pictures from the night!!

Party decorated in pink and blue with

Rachael's signature pom poms...

Baby Clark!!

Yummy snackies...

Guests arriving!!

Everyone was buzzing around with anticipation!

I ALMOST was too excited to eat anything...

almost...

Bah-looons!!

Everything looked so cute!! Now you see why the

pressure is on for me to throw one helluva

baby shower for this girl!!

Mommys gettin' a lil belly!

We couldn't stand to wait another second...

so, it was time for the big reveal...

courtesy of Matt and some pyrotechnics..

 

{Ok...so...I had really great intentions of uploading my

not-so-great video I took of the big reveal-however after

4 days of attempting to figure out how to upload a video

I have given up and decided to continue one sans video...

Feel free to pretend like you saw an awesome clip just now...}

Ok...I might be the worst videographer ever. EVER.

Sorry bout that one Rach :(

maybe somebody other than your 

unable-to-multitask-overly-excited-and-emotional

friend should have taken up video recording?? Oh, well.

And my voice. wow. it's terrible...

BUT atleast you can get a glimpse of the eruption

of excitement that occurred!

Rachael's rendition of when she realized

it was a girl at her ultrasound appointment..

love that face!! 

Grandpa Springer is so excited!!

We all are!!

YaY!!

I can't wait to meet this sweet little girl..

June can't get here soon enough!!!

What's new around here....

Well...there's really not all that much going on, but

I got my hair cut & colored...finally. 

This was honestly about 6 months overdue...

I'm one of those people who will go a ridiculous 

amount of time without having my hair cut.

It grows soooo slow 

and since I don't use any flat irons or blowdryers I don't really get split ends...

this leads to me being negligent and putting off hair cuts for many many months...

Lindsey, my good friend from high school, 

does my hair for me and I'm always super happy with how it turns out.  

She styles it for me and makes it do things I never thought possible.  

When I got home, Roy took one look at me and 

I got one of those wide-eyed 'wow my wife looks hot' faces...

Gotta love that

He was so impressed that he thought I should take some pictures of it...

(I chose to take that as a compliment and not as a sign that my hair may never 

look this good again so we better capture it on film...)

So I did...

Pardon my crappy self portraits using my iPhone..

In other news...

I booked a vacation this week!!

YaY!

And although I'm not quite fulfilling my new years 

resolution of leaving the country,

I might as well be-because I'm freakin' excited!

Hellloooo San Diego!!!

Initially I had wanted to try and plan something

in Charleston, SC, but the airfare was

Ri-Dic-U-LoUs

So I started looking at other options and found some

amazing package deals to San Diego...score!

I haven't been to San Diego in over 10 years and Roy

has never been, so I think it will awesome.

Ok, now let's get to what REALLY has

me excited this week...

My best friend Rachael and her husband Matt are finding out

what they're having today!!

AHHHHHHH!!!

How is it possible to be this excited about someone else's pregnancy?

I'm pretty sure it isn't healthy, and she probably wants

to put a restraining order on me at this point...but

she's being a good sport about it and indulging crazy old

Auntie Beth....

I just can't stop thinking about what a life changing

day this is for them...

Boy or Girl.

A life filled with trucks and planes and soccer practice

or dolls and barbies and ballet classes.

Wow. 

I honestly don't know two people who will be better

parents or who are more deserving of a

healthy sweet baby than Rach and Matt...

I'm so excited!!!!

They're telling close friends and family tomorrow, but

 the tough part will be working with Rachael

tonight without trying to get the scoop!!

That's about all I've got for now!!

2012

I just sat her for about 5 minutes with

my head in my hands trying to figure out

what the heck I had to say about 2011...

I guess the answer is clear...

Nothing.

So long.

Good Riddance.

C'est La Vie.

Peace Out.

I'm sure it was a fine year for plenty of folks

out there. And although throwing a pity

party sometimes feels nice...

I realize whole-heartedly that things

could always be worse...I didn't get cancer or

the bubonic plague yet, so I've got

that going for me... ;)

And yes, I'm definitely cheesy enough

to make some new years resolutions too...

I feel like they're really just goals though.

I keep thinking of more things to

add to my list, but I'm really trying

to make sure the list is comprised

of tangible goals that won't overwhelm me...

Me being overwhelmed= Me shutting down.

Ok, so in no particular order...

1) Get my passport. If I don't leave the country

at some point this year..I might lose it.

2) Learn to sew. I'm not saying I'll be making 

my own clothes by the end of the year, but 

I'm hoping to master atleast simple tasks..

pillows, curtains etc...

3) Start attending church more regularly.

Not much to elaborate there...it just

really needs to happen.

4) Plan more family gatherings.

I'm always complaining about how our 

family never gets together anymore, so I'm 

taking over as family matriarch (yikes...

does that make me like 80 years old??)

5) Be healthier, exercise more & hopefully...lose weight.

I know, I know...cliche, right?

But I really do want to accomplish this. 

I can't throw the towel in on myself yet...

I'm not promising to go vegan or lose 30 pounds,

but I am going to try to make a more

consistent effort.

5 resolutions.

I like it.

But, I'm just so impatient...

 I can't help but to jump ahead & start 

wondering where I'll be this time next year.

So much can change in 365 days. 

What will my life look like?

What will my family look like?

How will my friends' lives have changed?

How will my marriage have changed?

How will my job have changed?

I guess that's part of why I have this blog.

To look back and compare where I am and

where I've been. 

And hopefully learn something from it

in the process.

So, Happy New Year.

I'm praying for big things in 2012.

A Very Maney Christmas 2011

Ahhh....

Christmas has come and gone once again.

Usually I feel a sense of post-Christmas let down...

can't really say that I'm minding this year.

This was the first (and maybe last) annual Christmas at the Maneys.
Ok, Ok that may be a little dramatic..

Overall, things went well...

Of course we had our fair share of family drama...

but I suppose that's sometimes just unavoidable.

Hopefully the next 363 days will be long enough for me to 

forget about it...kind of like forgetting about the

pains of childbirth!!

Anyhoo..I'll go ahead give myself props for pulling it off.

The menu turned out great...there was more than

enough food and drinks to go around.

Everyone said the house looked pretty,

(not that they would tell me if it didn't...) and we 

got to have several family members over that hadn't been

to our house since we'd moved in.

Christmas Eve we stuck to our annual

tradition of heading over to my Aunt and Uncles house

to have Christmas with them..

I was really excited that we got to spend some

time with both of my cousins. There's only 

4 of us girls that are first cousins, and it's really

a shame that we don't see each other more often..

Kelly and I have made a pact to try and 

be better about staying in touch and reaching out..

Someday we'll be the ones organizing these

things-so we need to stick together!!

Here's a few pictures from Christmas Eve..

Kelly, mom, Ladonna, Uncle Steve and Sarah

pullin' out the old family photos...

Kel

My nuclear family

Undersheriff Jackson

Cousin Brianna...

15 years old and standing 5'10"!!

Uncle Steve and Aunt Barbara

Sisters....

I think we can finally settle the debate on who's

head is bigger....

Christmas Eve night

Mom, Dad and my Uncle Jeff all decided

to stay the night at our house instead of

driving back to Mound City.

Who wants to drive an hour only to turn

around and come back in the morning??

Better yet, who wants to live in

Mound City??

This remains a mystery....

Christmas morning we woke up and I

got busy working on breakfast.

Fortunately, I was able to prepare

most of my dishes in advance-so all I

really had to do was pop everything in the oven..

sometimes it really pays to be Type A..

The Christmas breakfast table!

You never think when you're buying your 

first dining table that you will ever need

anything that seats more than six people...

and then you host Christmas...

After breakfast we opened presents and then

spent the afternoon snacking, visiting and

watching movies while waiting until

it was time to eat again!

Passing out gifts

Clark Griswold in the flesh..

I do believe someone was about to be assaulted

with a shovel...

Dinner is served!!

And now, because I can...

some self indulgent pictures of my

favorite Christmas decorations and 

the tree I worked so hard on...

My little tree with nursing ornaments

...cheesy, right? I just can't help myself..

Our tree!

Definitely the most 'grown up' tree we've

ever had and quite the labor of love...

One of my new favorite ornaments...

my best friend made me this sweet 

ornament with a little gold "R" 

on it for my Grammy.

I will treasure this forever!

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas

with your families and friends!!

I'll be missing you

I haven't blogged in awhile.
Just been unmotivated to do it.. I had several things that I'd been thinking about blogging...Christmas decorations, Christmas traditions, our appraisal, work, my sisters birthday....

But then, on the 13th, at 3:05am my sweet, wonderful Grammy passed away.
A moment I'd been dreading for as long as I've understood the permanence of death.
And now all I want to do is pour out all this wonderful love that I have for her....My perfectionist self could easily write and re-write this post, but i'm going to try and resist the urge to do so..I'm all too aware that my novice writing ability will barely scratch the surface of who she was.
Or I suppose I could spend hours scanning and uploading a lifetime of pictures to try and show you her beauty, her spirit, her love for family and friends.....but I know that pictures (no matter how treasured) still wouldn't do her justice.
She was someone you just had to experience yourself.
I can pretty much say without a shadow of a doubt that all those who met her, loved her. As I sit here writing this I am straining my memory to try and glimpse even one instance where I saw her angry, or yelling, or speaking poorly of someone.
I can't. I honestly cannot think of one. single. time.
She didn't have the easiest life, but she was none the angrier about it....just continued to be her kind, sweet self despite having experiences some of life's hardest trials.
Oh to even start to list all of the things I love and will remember about her!
How she loved to dance.
Her laugh.
Her sense of humor.
How she hated her straight hair.
Her honesty.
Her tender heart...and her love for animals.
She made the best glazed carrots I've ever had (I could never re-create them no matter how simple she made them sound)
She was the kind of woman who would never let anyone see her without her hair done, nails painted and eyelashes curled (I'm not kidding you..she curled those lashes until they were nubs!!)...but her vanity wasn't carried out in a way that made you want to roll your eyes, but in a sweet, adorable way that made you want to laugh and give her a big hug-cause she was just so dang cute.
Grammy and I had something special.
A bond that formed from years of her watching me during the days while my parents worked.  Something that we both understood-but didn't need to say aloud. Something said only with a knowing look.
My Grammy.
People always told us how much we looked alike. And I think I speak for both of us when I say that we loved it....the same way someone might beam on the inside when they're told that they resemble a celebrity.  I wanted to look like her. To be like her. Cause she was just that great.
But I still can't help but feel like the memories I have aren't enough.
I want to remember more.
I want to remember every holiday, every family dinner, every long walk, every story, every word of advice ever offered....I want to lock it all away where it won't fade with time.

We love her. We'll miss her. But, like my mom said...we've been missing her for awhile now.
Parkinson's disease took her life, but nothing will ever take our memories with her. And my heart finds peace knowing that she was a believer. She's with Jesus at this very second. Hearing sounds and seeing colors that I can't even begin to imagine.  I can't wait until I can join her again someday.
But until then, Grammy,  I'll be missing you.

Something funny...

I mean...seriously??

I laughed...like, a lot.

"Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia!!"