This weekend we really did not do too much, just explored the area a bit more, did the grocery shopping, and visited a park. We rented “Just Go With It” and it was really a cute movie. We have been wanting to see “Thor” but its still checked out at the Redbox when we get a chance to check it. Arwen is doing good, she is talking so much more now and its amazing how different she is from Anya but how much she loves following and copying everything Anya does. I wonder if I did that with Stephen??? Probably so! I remember lots of things I did with my big brother, but I always hated his rubberband guns! I do remember waiting every day for his bus to drop him off and running outside to meet him! Arwen is the same way when I tell her its time to go get sister. She drops whatever she’s doing, gets her shoes, because she loves shoes, and heads straight for the front door! Its good to have siblings I think!
Here’s a mule that lives just down the road from us on the way to the park…his name is Sisco! The girls love him and he loves for anyone to pet him!

Anya on her big wheel riding to the park…

Arwen in her favorite pink car…getting almost too big for it!

At the park…

Arwen loves to copy sister and here she was trying to lean back in the swing like Anya does!

This is a common occurrence at my house…after Travis and Anya leave for work and school in the morning, Arwen takes over our bed, and Chance stays with her until she wakes up! Every morning! Sweet, right?

Okay, so I’m not the world’s best housekeeper. I know its necessary, but its just not much fun! Arwen just got into the bath with Travis and I turned around and of course there were clothes on the floor…that’s one little secret no one ever tells you, that when you get married and have kids, dirty clothes appear literally out of nowhere! And laundry is probably my least favorite task. I hate doing laundry! I hate doing dishes too, but luckily, Travis does those most of the time for me, especially since he gave me the little dragon figurine that says “Dragons don’t do dishes” and since I can be a bit of dragon sometimes about dirty dishes, it fits me perfectly! Laundry…blah! I do have a new washing machine though, one that is not from the 1800s, and it works really well and its so quiet! The dryer…well, its still from the 1800s and about as loud as 777 taking off, but it still works, but only on one setting! I’ll get a new dryer one day and maybe it will be quiet too and maybe I’ll start liking washing clothes…No, probably not. I have resorted to drying towels on our new $10 drying rack. It takes about an hour for them to dry out here in the Dallas heat, so that saves time, energy, and money!
Not a whole lot going on out here the past week or so except we did find an awesome sno cone place yesterday called Bahama Bucks! Its great! I got a banana sno cone that Arwen confiscated, Anya got Red Raspberry – which she loved and claims to be just like the one from the Sno Cone Man in Alabama, Travis got peach, and I ended up with Arwen’s birthday cake flavor, which I actually ended up loving. Its a sno cone though and anyone that knows me knows that I have sno cone radar! I love them! I do not like crunching on ice, so the sno has to be really fine, and I don’t like ice in my drinks, but this just furthers the proof that I’m a bit weird. Loves sno cones, hates ice!
Get ready for more pictures from me, I’m starting to carry my camera everywhere now so I hope that you will all be seeing an updated website more often now! For now, however, here’s a few oldies…

Asking $139,900! Also can be viewed on www.realtor.com – $1000 bonus to the buyer at closing!
MLS Number is – 86987

Details: 3 large bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 car garage – in a lovely, quiet neighborhood. Built in 2004. 1528 sq. ft. Private backyard, no neighbors behind you! New Whirlpool refrigerator and entire surround sound system included! Separate laundry room and pantry! Giant closet in hall, plenty of storage, split floor plan, vaulted ceilings in master bedroom. Crown molding in dining room, beautiful maple cabinets, kitchen with an island! Ceramic tile and linen closets in both bathrooms!
Sits on .28 acres – neighborhood is only about 30 houses, so its small and you actually get the chance to know your neighbors! No HOA!
And here are some photos:
Front of house:

Foyer:

Hall bathroom:

Formal Dining room:

Kitchen:

Master bath:

One of guest bedrooms:

How pretty in snow:

Okay, so since our house has not sold yet…I am enjoying doing some research. My latest fascination is about plastic and the chemicals that leach from our plastics into our foods and drinks. For example…bottled water. Everyone buys it and drinks it and thinks that it is a good thing for them because marketing reps use words like “pure” and “natural”, but did you know that almost half of all bottled waters are nothing but filtered tap water. Its true! If you have Netflix…check out “Tapped” – its a fascinating documentary all about this subject. If you don’t have Netflix, go check out the website: www.theplasticplanet.org
Its truly fascinating to me. We have been trying to use more glass lately because of all this. One thing that I found the most interesting was that since the 70s there have been serious health changes…perhaps because of all the plastic/bottled water! Think about it…think about how long the bottled water sits in the plastic bottles, wrapped in plastic, in the grocery store. Nestle Water is a huge manufacturer of the bottled water and they include Arrowhead, Deer Park, Ozarka, and Poland Spring as well as companies like Coke and Pepsi – which includes waters such as Fiji, SmartWater, and Dasani. Can it really be better to drink the bottled water from the plastic container that has been sitting in the store that long vs. drinking water straight from your own tap. PLUS the really fascinating part is that the bottled water companies are not required by the federal government to conduct any kind of tests on their water…AT ALL! Tap water, however, goes through rigorous, continuous tests in every state in the nation throughout the year and the results are public knowledge!

In particular, the health issues I find interesting concerns reproduction. Now, think about how many couples have had issues with infertility since the 70s??? It does make you question…why? This was an article on ABC News back in November 2009 mainly concerning BPA – which everyone is aware of now and people try to buy products without BPA – the whole baby bottle thing (sidebar – if you breastfeed your baby gets milk straight from the tap so no need to worry about any kind of bottles really, although Dr. Browns make an excellent glass bottle as does Evenflo and Medela, but I digress). Still, the question stands…if BPA is so bad, which it has been shown to cause cancer, what chemical did they replace the BPA with???

And now back to the issue of reproduction…Here’s a snippet of the article…
“While environmental groups have sounded the alarm about the presence of bis-phenol-A, or BPA, in products such as infant formula, baby bottles and other plastics, a new study provides some of the first evidence that the chemical can be harmful to humans, linking it to sexual dysfunction in men in high doses.
Researchers looked at 550 factory workers in China, some of whom were exposed to BPA as part of their job, and found that men who worked with BPA were four times more likely than their counterparts who did not work with the chemical to report some level of sexual dysfunction. “

You can find the entire article here…

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MensHealthNews/bpa-linked-sexual-dysfunction-men/story?id=9048200

So, very interesting, huh???

Travis and I had some friends in Cullman that were very health conscious and since Travis has been working for a vitamin/health company we have really started paying attention to things of this nature. Particularly chemicals…and pollution of our planet…

We are really glad that Texas has a strong recycle program here, but it would be great if they would inform newcomers a bit more easily as to how this all works…maybe include it in your mail package that everyone gets when they notify the post office of their change of address information. Which, another sidebar complaint here; Seriously, how hard is it to change your address??? I still receive mail upon mail for the former tenants of our duplex…some of which include court notices for her fees that she has not paid for the toll roads!!! Hopefully, the road/toll people will find out her new address as I have repeatedly put on her mail…return to sender/no longer at this address! I thought my hand was going to fall off the first time I collected/sorted through all of the mail!

Again I digress…back to the plastic issue! Anya is allowed to carry a water bottle to school here…great idea, but I had a hard time finding her a safe water bottle to carry! Glass…breaks…children break glass easily…what to do??? While some stainless steel thermoses are okay, I really prefer to go back to glass…easy to clean, no chemicals, etc., etc. So, I found a water bottle by a company called Lifefactory that sold these bottles in the Whole Foods Market. They are glass, but come with a silicone sleeve around them, so if she drops it, it has a slim chance of breaking…it does include a plastic carrying top/cap, but it is BPA free and she does not drink from the top, she actually unscrews the cap and drinks from the glass! Pretty cool, huh? The other bottle I like is by Aquasana – same principle but comes with a kind of beer cozy thing. So, what are we doing at home…I am making a slow transition back to glass. Its a bit more expensive so its taking some time, but for glasses for the girls, I’m utilizing the glass in the cozy idea. I found some glasses at Dollar Tree that fit inside the little soft holder things so if they drop them, there’s a minimal chance of them breaking, which lets face it people is a good idea for me too because as most of you know, I’m very clumsy!

Okay, enough with my plastic tirade…wait until you see my next post about “Corn Syrup”!