The Bailey Chronicles

I have only had one car my whole driving life. A 95 Nissan Altima. And most of that driving life both the speedometer and the ac have not worked which has been slightly miserable. I put a lot of money into that vehicle with repairs and such to get it to last me as long as it did, but eventually the transmission started to bow out gracefully. My credit was shot early in life so it was never an option for me to buy a car even though eventually I made enough money to support a car payment. At the time John had just purchased his own vehicle so he was not approved to have another until that note was paid down. I started to become unreliable at work with the ride situation so I quit my job until the time came where we could figure out a more reliable means of transportation for myself. Not too long after that Bailey happened. We got serious about the finances, paid his car note down, fixed the credit, got a house. New home buyers' tax credit has made the wait for a new, reliable, safe vehicle finally come to an end! Bailey and I are free to roam the Dallas Metro and take road trips whenever we want to!! I fell in love with the new Ford Edge crossover vehicles because they have everything I could possibly want in a car, great on gas for an SUV type of vehicle, and since it's domestic the repairs will be cheaper once it starts getting older. It's leather, with seat heat, dual climate zones, dual moon roofs, 5 disc CD changer, and lots of backseat space for B! The backseat will fold down flat for an 8 foot loading zone for our giant cakes hahaha. I love it so much I could hug it! Being in a house has made being with out a car less of a drag, but for 3 years it has paid it's toll on me. I can't even begin to tell you the excitement I feel and the relief I have over this. Thank you God for blessing our family!!!!

My sister Juli, passed away April 6, 2005 from a brain cancer called Nueroblastoma. Juli battled this cancer most of her life, but she always kept a smile on her face and her witty sense of humor about life. So many things in life remind me of her humor that it makes it easy to smile whenever my mind wanders off and finds her. Certain songs, tons of movies... especially Wayne's World, and all things pig related. Juli adored pigs sooooo much, and every Christmas or birthday we were always able to find at least one random pig item to gift her. I can only imagine what her collection must have looked like! When she passed in April, my sister Candi along with some of her sewing friends, created a line of custom pig clothing in memory of her. My Mom's boss purchased a pair of overalls for her little girl made by Candi's friend Candi (confusing I know LOL), and then once she outgrew them sent them back our way for Bailey. This April marks the five year anniversary of her passing and it only seemed fitting to dress Bailey in her piggy overalls as much as possible this April. I find it so incredibly special that they made their way back to us.

One of my bff's, Barbara (who's getting married!!!) created this little Bailey toon :D I am so excited for her and her fiance, Jedidiah. Barbara is one of my girls that I have know since High School. No matter how much distance is between us or how much time has passed we can still pick up right where we left off, giggle about stupid things, cry on each other's shoulders, tell each other things we shouldn't, be ourselves 100% and never have any awkwardness. This girl is so funny, she can bring me to tears (in laughter) at any moment... we got in trouble in class many times because of this! She is so intelligent and beautiful and kind hearted. I couldn't be more happy for her that she has found her soul mate and her happily ever after. Congrats Barbara!!!!

This was the first year Bailey has been big enough to enjoy Easter. We got to host Easter at our house this year so I stayed up late the night before cleaning the house, stuffing eggs, and making Easter goody baskets for everyone. My mom brought over our traditional Easter breakfast casserole, fruit and dip, coffee cake and deviled eggs. mmmm yummy! Bailey slept through everyone arriving, and when she finally woke up she was totally shocked to see everyone here to greet her and give her prizes.

My sister brought her an egg that shouts "I'm over here!" "Come find me" and all sorts of cuteness, and when you open it up there is a little animal inside that says "you found me!!!!" Bailey carried that thing around with her most of the morning. When the Easter bunny hid the eggs for her and her cousins to find he made some Bailey friendly eggs filled with gummy snacks and animal cookies that he hid on our patio so she wouldn't have to walk on that scary grass. The rest were filled with all sorts of yummies and strewn across our quarter acre lot for

Bella and Skylar to race after.

Bailey didn't so much hunt the eggs and put them in her basket. She opened the first couple and ate the snacks inside and then started to throw them off the patio into the grass. She likes to throw things these days. Oh well, whatever makes her happy. She may get the concept a little more next year maybe. All in all it was a good day with the family. After everyone left it was nap time, so we all just kinda kicked back and relaxed the rest of the day, and planned our trip for the Arboretum the following day.

I love having a backyard. I forgot how great they can be. I think I took them for granted as a kid, and now that it's been 10 years since I last lived some where that offered me a backyard, I have grown a whole new appreciation for them. Ours is huge. We don't have any playground equipment, or a pool, or even trees, but it is big full of grass and fenced and that is awesome when you have a tot. I hope that some day we will have the opportunity to do more with what we have, but for now and at her age this is perfect. Bailey's best friend Ian came over to play today, along with his mommy, my bf. We took the kids outside to run around in back and play ball. Normally Bailey doesn't want anything to do with the grass, but she saw Ian running around and needed to be near him so she overcame her fears. And at this moment it made me fully appreciate what a yard has to offer. It's a safe place. A place that offers total peace of mind. No cars to worry about. No strange animals or dogs w/o leashes. No strangers to keep my eye on. Just me and my baby, and whoever else comes to play. And John loves to spend time tossing the football with his nephew, Skylar, or his buddies that come over, looks like he'll have two new little football buddies ;P

These are just a few photos that capture a little bit of the beauty at the Arboretum... makes me want to hire a landscaper.

I will post Easter pics later. I've got to do things a little backwards because my camera was not charged up for some reason on Easter morning. I left the photography up to my sister, which will probably be better than the pics that I would have taken anyway. Waiting for her to make edits and post them, and then I can blog about our wonderful Easter Sunday hosted at our house.

Today, being Monday, John was off so we took this opportunity to go to the Spring Flower Festival at the Dallas Arboretum. This was the place that my friend, Holly, and her son, Ian, took Bailey and I to in Fall for the pumpkin Fest. It was absolutely beautiful! And though Fall holds the biggest place in my heart, the Arboretum this time of year makes Spring a close contender.

Six months ago when we took Bailey to see the pumpkins she was still just cruising. But now she is walking, so it made it even more entertaining, and at times slightly challenging. She loved the flowers and the waterscapes. She refuses to walk in grass, but tried it out a little at the Arboretum because it is soft and green and beautiful. I would say she tolerated the grass, I didn't see the usual fear come across her face, but I also didn't see delight about it. I wish we could have made it out there a little earlier in the morning because they had photos with live bunnies, and a petting zoo that we missed out on. Oh well, maybe next time.