What to do on a 2 week vacation at "home"

Does anyone else, when referencing their parent's home/hometown, say they are going home when they go to visit their parents?

Even though our home is in Tucson, my "home" where I feel all warm and fuzzy will probably always be the Texas Panhandle. 
Please tell me that I'm not the only one who feels that way....

Well anyways, we are currently on the tail end of this wonderfully long Christmas break from AZ life.  It's been pretty wonderful..there is something so beautiful and comforting about the barren flatness that is the Panhandle!


So what have we done during this stay..well I am gonna tell you...in list form because that seems to be my 2012 trend :-)

1. Take a break
2. Revert back to Annie's newborn sleeping schedule...I sure did miss those early morning hours....not...
3. Take more breaks because of the above lack of sleep.
4. Make 8 key lime pies completely from scratch...our new Christmas tradition!
5. Take a break after making and sampling said pies....declare them perfection and lapse into a sugar coma.
6. Load up the pies and take them to those friends and family members that are on our must see list....mind you this takes place over 3 days because of our little one who feels the need to either nap or have a melt down. (Don't worry Annie...your mom was the same way,well she still is...).
7. Show off nearly 6 month old child to everyone in town....because she is something of a local celebrity.  You should have seen everyone at church....she stole the show :)
8. Take another break, because, well because you can!
9. Soak up all the grandparent and great grandparent time that can be had by Annie in the span of 2 weeks. I hate that they are so far away!
10. Attempt to order a new car...complete failure.
11. Research cars that have the options that we want.
12. Breathe in all the Texas air you can.
13. Enjoy this break, spend time with family, escape reality, and make memories!

This is what we did on our 2 week break from reality!

(I realized after being back in AZ for 2 weeks that I failed to publish this....oops)

Before I was a Lawrence....

I was just another girl, living life and blogging on different sites.

So I thought it would be fun for you guys to look into my past....

The past meaning Xanga and LiveJournal of course!

I left the old blogs on sad notes. I was struggling with my move to New Mexico, but rereading those posts remind me that this difficult transition in Arizona will also pass.

However hidden in those blogs are some wonderful memories. The beginning of my relationship with Rhett, the absolute stress of nursing school, attempting to have a social life, and heinous amounts of annoying quizzes.

Read if you like, and get ready for the mother of all posts....either tomorrow or wednesday!

"What did Max do" Wednesday

I have so many great pictures for WDMDW.

I can't contain my excitement!

On with the post!

Max doesn't really know snow.

Ha that rhymed.

When we went to Texas for Christmas, and it was one of the first white Christmases in a long time! It was so wonderful, but Max didn't enjoy the cold. So one day he needed to "mark his territory," and he didn't want to stray very far.

Hence.....

The dog water bowls are located right by the back door.

At least he melted some of the ice.

Weekend Recap

Oh goodness...We had quite a (long) weekend spent in Pampa!  
And here's what we did!

1. The original purpose was to go with my future SIL to pick out wedding dresses....

Here she is trying on a beautiful dress (but it wasn't THE dress)

Danielle stated that she felt like a "dipped cone" ....

(not what you want to be looking like for your wedding....although they are quite yummy!)

but she looks so beautiful in the dress she picked out ( and no there will not be a picture...come on now!)

2. We got to meet Marmie's (Rhett's mamma) new puppy....Sue Ellen, Molly, Wooly Booly, Sallie May, Sallie Molly....we still don't know what her name should be...so we just called her whatever!  Rhett kept saying we were gonna steal her (sadly we didn't :()

isn't she so cute!

We also worked on getting her crate set up...good thing ol' steve (rhett's step dad) picked up 2 packages of ADULT DIAPERS on the side of the road one day (thinking they were cotton gloves)....



yes sirree...those are adult diapers!  gross huh!

3. We worked on those taxes even though I would rather have poked my eyes out. And we are apparently going to get a small refund....I will take that any day over having to give money to the government!

4. I fell even more in love with that handsome hubby of mine....when he sang his rendition of that famous Garth song..."Ain't goin' down till the sun comes up"


(I apologize for the shakiness...I couldn't stop laughing and let's face it...I'm no Steven Spielberg or I guess now I should say Danny Boyle)

So that concludes the majority of our exciting weekend...the rest will be used as blogging material throughout the week!

even more conversations with my husband....

Last night, Rhett and I were sitting on the couch, watching how terrible our local news is (but I do love that Steve Stucker, the AM weatherman).  I was adding a payee to my Bank of America Bill Pay which happens to be the New Mexico Gas Company.  Our gas and electric service used to come only from PNM (I know you guys don't care, but I blog how I talk, convoluted-ly), but now PNM only deals with electric and we now have NMGC for our gas services.

So my husband, being the 13 year old boy at heart that he is, was pumped about the word "gas." 

Here's an excerpt from our conversation:

R(hett):  What are you doing?

K(elley):  Setting up bill pay for the gas bill, why?

R:  We need to prank call them...and say "I've got some GAS for you," (fart noise inserted here)

K & R: uncontrollable laughter

Sadly, prank calling is going away in our day and age...thanks to caller ID, etc.  So so sad....I would totally love to tape Rhett doing this....who knows...it may still happen.

In other news....we are off again to the great state of Texas!  We will be singin' that George song "Amarillo by morning," as we are driving through Amarillo to get to Pampa

Exciting times will be had by all...Max will enjoy terrorizing his "uncles" (a.k.a. my parents' crazy schnauzers), Rhett sleeping all the time, and me going with my future SIL to watch her try on wedding dresses!  Can't wait!

Our trip to Houston....part 2!

So upon our arrival to Houston, we all discussed what we wanted to do....we debated about NASA, multiple places of interest, etc.

None of them really sounded that interesting (i kid i kid...there were so many things that we didn't get to that we wanted to do), until Melissa mentioned.....

The Nation's largest and only MUSEUM OF FUNERAL HISTORY!!!

(morbid I know....but seriously who can say that they have been to this museum....only probably a handful of people in this fine country, and now Rhett, Aaron, Melissa, and I can count ourselves amongst these people)

So here is the photo documentation of this "exciting" stop!

I wasn't quite sure....
Business cards make this legit!


This lady modeled burial attire for a living....so when you complain about what you do for a living....remember this woman...

Melissa started to warm up to this place!  She's always so happy and cheerful!

This was a money coffin...apparently it had thousands of dollars inside and outside....

For $5 you could have your very own replica of a famous person's death certificate (this may have been one of the creepiest things here)

Snow White's Coffin....

Overall this place was pretty interesting and informative...they had replicas of presidential coffins, memorabilia from several prominent figures in history, and information on the history of funeral history....

but it indeed was quite odd....

After we were done, we enjoyed a frosty soda from Sonic and made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies....a perfect ending to a strange and enlightening experience!

Our exciting trip to Houston! (Day 1)

So last weekend we got to experience the great state of Texas, and it was spectacular! I have never been to Houston, so it was great to see what it really is like (not what I have always envisioned..smoggy and humid).

SO instead of typing, here's is an illustration of the weekend!

Who wouldn't enjoy their 2 hour airline flight when they were watching their free digital copy of MAMMA MIA!? It was fabulous! Except when Pierce Brosnan was singing!


You may be asking yourself...what are those boys doing? Getting a salt scrub of course! Being the good wives that we are, Melissa and I were tired of holding those dry scaly hands, and our husbands gladly (ok so maybe they were forced) participated in the salt scrubbing. Funny thing is, Rhett totally wanted to buy some after it was all said and done....


Here is Aaron thinking he is almost like Jesus....trying to "walk on water" and all....I had to break it to him that none of us can be that cool ;)


Rhett and I in downtown Sugarland!  They have such a pretty town square area!

Ok so this picture doesn't do this Hot Chocolate justice....it is crack on drink form from Border's.  I didn't understand why Melissa and Susan were so pumped about this hot chocolate...and then I saw the mountains of delicious whipped cream, topped with white and dark chocolate shavings and a hunk of chocolate sticking out to enjoy....It was a glimpse of heaven!  yummmmmm

And this all happened on the 1st day!  stay tuned for the next post, for the a tour of the most awesome museum in AMERICA!

--------------------------------------------------
And several of the blogs that I read are having some awesome giveaways so go check these blogs out:

Misadventures of a Newlywed is giving away some super cute stationary

House of Rose is giving away some monogrammed flat cards! Have I said how much I love stationary?

The PInk Potpourri is also giving away some fabulous stationary!

Be Thou a Knight is giving away a Vera Bradley Bag

The Stars and Stripes are Big and Bright...

clap clap clap clap

Deep in the heart of TEXAS!

oh yes sirree! I do love me some Texas.

Where else can you get a sunset like this?



BEAUTIFUL!

Well anyways...we will be leaving this afternoon to see my sister-in-law and brother-in-law in there new hometown Katy/Houston. Rhett and I can't wait! We love hanging out with Aaron and Melissa, and I can't wait to experience Houston for the 1st time! Bring on the humidity!

I hope you all have a blessed weekend!


Also, check out The Pink Potpourri for another chance to win a cute ring on her Free Giveaway Friday!